Post Eden

Post Eden opens a space for reflection at the intersection of technological mediation, ecological collapse, and the fading promise of utopia. In a world increasingly filtered through screens—where perception is shaped by algorithms, isolation, and commodified dreams—the exhibition gathers five distinct voices in contemporary video and media art: Anna Anders, Larisa Crunțeanu, Kathrin Hunze, Jörg Piringer, and Nadja Verena Marcin. Curated by Art Claims Impulse, Post Eden interrogates what remains when the myth of paradise dissolves, and what new visions can emerge from its ruins.

Through poetic disruption and immersive installations, the participating artists respond to the exhaustion of idealism in the digital age. Their works examine the fragile boundaries between self and world, body and biosphere, illusion and reality. In this terrain of decay and potential renewal, art becomes a vehicle for critical agency—offering space for resistance, remembrance, and transformation.

Nadja Verena Marcin contributes two works that resonate with the thematic core of Post Eden. In OPHELIA, she reinterprets Shakespeare’s tragic figure as a symbol of female subjectivity in an era marked by ecological disaster and sociopolitical rupture. Wearing a breathing mask, the artist immerses herself in an aquarium, floating in stillness as she recites Daniil Kharms’ poem The Werld. Interweaving historical imagery—most notably Millais’ iconic painting—with contemporary performance and video, the work draws a line between environmental degradation and the historical construction of female hysteria, exposing the neglected connection between body, psyche, and nature.

Her second piece, Zero Gravity (2013), takes the viewer on a suspended journey above Tampa Bay, where the artist floats freely while reciting Nietzsche’s proclamation: “God is dead.” The installation reflects on the loss of spiritual orientation and the vacuum left behind in a world governed by spectacle and capital. Hovering between planetary pull and cosmic escape, Zero Gravity evokes both alienation and aspiration—inviting us to confront the contradictions of post-utopian existence.

In the wake of collapsed ideals, Post Eden does not offer resolution but opens a dialogue: What happens when paradise is no longer viable? What gestures of beauty, defiance, and imagination can be born from its absence?