In the modern world, the notion of the “hybrid” has become an inseparable component of everyday life. Mechanisms, computers, products, clothing, methods of education, spaces, bodies, languages—even instruments of war—are all hybrids. Etymologically, the Greek term hybris, from which the Latin hybridus is derived, means sin and arrogance—hubris. The first Greek philosophers viewed humankind and nature as a single entity. The separation from nature was accompanied by pride and boldness (hybris), which brought about chaos and destruction. Such behavior (Icarus, Phaethon, Ajax) is described in Greek mythology as a constant human striving toward a higher dimension, relentlessly punished by the gods. If we view today’s “technological revolution” through this lens, then humanity’s efforts to conquer the world at any cost—and to create hybrid prostheses for daily life—can indeed be seen as modern hybris.
However, in contemporary art, this effort succeeds, sweeping away the cliché of the “vile ordinariness” of the world. Rebellion, protest, and audacity place us once again at the clash between order and chaos; they unflinchingly hold up a mirror to our own identity. Artists, more radically than anyone else, seem to offer a juxtaposition and exchange with the “otherness” that infiltrates our daily lives. What will our future be like if machines become extensions of the human species? What happens if technologies no longer need humans?
The project, exhibited in the gallery spaces of Ca’ Foscari’s library and organized by the MediaArtLab CYLAND, includes works by 19 artists from Italy, Russia, the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, and the United States. The project explores one of society’s fundamental mechanisms—the connection of the unconnectable, the problems in relationships between “the self” and “the other,” blurring the boundaries of clearly defined concepts. In this exhibition, new technologies and old media create a space where the personal territory of each artwork is not confined but merges and influences the others, generating new “hybrid fruits” of artistic perception. Structured cyberspaces, post-Soviet reflections, hybrids of geometry and classics, art and life—this diversity of artistic objects illustrates how relevant this theme was 5,000 years ago and still is today.
The dynamic nature of culture is the result of the coexistence of different languages within a shared cultural space: the more crowded and saturated this space is, the more complex the resulting system—and the more precise its representation of the world around us.
Founded in 2007, CYLAND is a non-profit organization committed to expanding the intersection between art and technology through an annual international festival, exhibitions, sound art, visual art, and educational programs. CYLAND hosts Eastern Europe’s largest online video art archive, organizes exhibitions worldwide, and is the driving force behind CYFEST, the largest annual new media art event in Russia.
Artists: Lucia Veronesi (IT), Alvise Bittente (IT), Valentina Povarova (RU), Irina Nakhova (RU+USA), William Latham (UK), Alexandra Dementieva (Belgium), Peter Patchen (USA), German Vinogradov (RU), Alexander Terebenin (RU), Alexei Kostroma (DE), Vitaly Pushnitsky (RU), Ludmila Belova (RU), Ivan Govorkov (RU), Elena Gubanova (RU), Carla Gannis (USA), Anna Frants (RU+USA), Alexander Shishkin-Hokusai (RU), Natalia Lyakh (FR), Boris Kazakov (RU).