Second Nature

Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre

Bringing together new and major interactive installations by Es Devlin, Simon Heijdens, A.A.Murakami, Random International and teamLab, Second Nature asks whether true symbiosis can ever be achieved between humans, nature and technology and seeks the threshold where technology ceases to feel other and begins to feel organic.

In an era where digital systems permeate all aspects of our lives, these artists deliberately break away from the ubiquitous rectangle interfaces through which we frame our reality and instead foreground sensorial embodiment. Against the passive gaze that screens typically solicit, Second Nature insists on physical presence. In doing so, it calls for instinctive engagement that encourages emotion over contemplation. To move through the exhibition is to become gradually attuned to the traces we leave and the invisible forces that both govern and connect us. Across the museum’s four floors, we are invited to reflect on our mediated experience of the world, the passage of time and the inalienable truth that all living beings form part of a single, precious ecosystem. A reminder that whatever second nature we build, we remain embedded in the first.

Artists

Es Devlin
Simon Heijdens
A.A.Murakami
Random International
teamLab

Curated by

Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst
Margot Mottaz

“(...) In an era where digital systems permeate all aspects of our lives, these artists construct immersive environments that invite reflection on the role we play in collectively allowing our experience of the world to become increasingly mediated."

MOLLIE DENT-BROCKLEHURST 

IMAGES COURTESY OF NITA MUKESH AMBANI CULTURAL CENTRE