Spring out of tiredness -- collective fatigue

From July 5th to September 5th, 2024, Mémoire de l'Avenir (MDA)/Humanities, Arts and Society (HAS) will bring together about 10 artists from around the world, from all media and forms of expressions, to create a trans-disciplinary collective exhibition that will explore the theme Spring Out of Tiredness -- Collective fatigue as a social, cultural, economic, and political phenomenon in our societies.

Fatigue is not simply an isolated personal feeling. Over the past decades, fatigue has become a subject of research as a social, cultural, and scientific issue.

The modern Olympic Games show humanity's aspiration to infinitely surpass its own physical limits. In reality, the idea of progress and performance was invented in sports from the 18th century on-wards. Since the second half of the 20th century, in a society where human performance is measured by work, everyone must face an overload and acceleration of work for increased performance, resulting in constant physical fatigue.

In "History of Fatigue: From the Middle Ages to the Present" (published in 2020), historian Georges Vigarelle estimates that the symptoms of fatigue have evolved over time and society. Philosopher Byung-Chul Han defines contemporary society as a society of fatigue in his work "The Burnout Society" (published in 2015). According to him, the neoliberal society is focused on the pursuit of personal success, which leads people to voluntarily exploit themselves, and exhausts them. This is not temporary fatigue, but ontological fatigue.

In the history of modern and contemporary art, there are already works dealing with phenomena of fatigue. Works by Lucian Freud, Dennis Oppenheim, Ron Mueck, Tracy Emin, as well as Camille Henrot, etc., can be mentioned.

Is the state of tiredness fundamental to BEINGS ?

The exhibition "Spring Out Of Tiredness" by Mémoire de l'Avenir invites artists to question the fatigue and our individual and collective doings as a shared (Human) living Condition and to take a new look at what shapes it and what it generates.

Website of the OPEN CALL : https://www.memoire-a-venir.org/crbst_309_en.html