Tiger in Space

Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM)
www.ekkm.ee/naitused/tiger-in-space

Co-curated by Marten Esko, Vanina Saracino and Lea Vene
Opening: September 11, 2020
Exhibition dates: September 12–November 1, 2020

Artists

Martta Tuomaala, Karl Sjölund, Jeremy Shaw, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Eduardo Navarro, Iggy Malmborg, Julian Charrière, Kristina Õllek, Ana Vaz

Concept

When asked to think about energy, do we think about it, or do we think about how we use it; how we produce it? Tiger in Space sets out to address and think about this resourceful and, at times, oversaturated notion of energy. It departs from common approaches to the imminent transition we face – transition from fossil fuel dependency towards other forms of usable energy. This transition will bring about essential practical changes, but it will only succeed if it is accompanied by a cognitive shift in our understanding of energy. In this perspective, both the notion of energy and its dominantly utility-driven connotations need to be reconsidered and to an extent separated, as not all that is energy can be harnessed or put to use.

The exhibition takes its title from Georges Bataille’s solar-energy-centred elaboration of general economy, published as The Accursed Share in 1949, in which he states that “the sexual act is in time what the tiger is in space”. In addition to implicit bemusement, the affirmation seems to have enabled him to position his research outside any particular (as opposed to general) discourse concerning economy; to a place where seemingly detached subjects can be considered equatable. For Bataille, both sides of the equation were examples of intense squandering and fierce incandescence inherent in what he called the excess energy; or an accursed share of energy. 

As the unfolding of all living matter on Earth is reliant on the abundance of energy radiating from the sun, there is inevitably an excess of it. This becomes easily apparent when considering that life has not only been able to sustain itself over time, but has managed to evolve into increasingly burdensome forms. According to Bataille, the curse of that excess energy lies in its inevitability of having to be needlessly squandered – “if the system can no longer grow, or if the excess cannot be completely absorbed in its growth, it must necessarily be lost without profit; it must be spent, willingly or not, gloriously or catastrophically”. And even though it cannot be utilised, it is still precisely the way how societies and cultures deal with the accursed share that defines their nature, as well as their future.

Within Tiger in Space, various instances of the idea of excess energy are tackled; ranging from the surplus of energy production to speculative and utopian community building; and spanning from destructive and toxic to glorious and transformative. This particular range of elaborations, areas of focus and critical insights is brought together and amplified by the exhibited artworks, which include both earlier works as well as new commissions. They variably underline either how the excess of energy could be approached and squandered; or take and expand on certain instances of energy-related excessiveness – for example how representations of environmental catastrophes merge the sublime and commodified aspects of excess energy.

Publication available here
Graphic design: Allan Appelberg

Supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Foundation for Arts Initiatives, Region Norrbotten