Forever Now is a response to our cultural obsession with immortalising ourselves, and asks the question: How do we choose what will last forever and be remembered?
For its 2013 artist residency program – Adhocracy, South Australian arts organisation Vitalstatistix will host curators Willoh S Weiland (Artistic Director of Aphids, VIC), Jeff Khan (Co-Director of Performance Space, NSW), Brian Ritchie (Curator of MONA FOMA, TAS) and Thea Baumann (independent artist) for their epic project, Forever Now.
Following in the footsteps of the Voyager Golden Record, sent into space in 1977 by NASA as a record of culture and science for that time, Forever Now seeks to investigate our current historical moment and create a new golden record for ‘now’.
As part of their residency, the Forever Now curators will collaborate with ten selected South Australian artists, curators and creative producers over several weeks (27th May – 7th June) to interrogate, explain and celebrate their choices for the record.
The outcome will be presented at Adhocracy from 8th -10th June through three public forums at Waterside Workers Hall, the home of Vitalstatistix.
Adhocracy is Vitalstatistix’s annual make’n’show hothouse inviting interdisciplinary artists to create, converse and critique with the public via artist talks and works-in-progress presentations over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.
In June, the Forever Now website will be launched at the International Symposium of Electronic Art, commencing a global call-out for public submissions and critical discussion about this immense project of curatorship.
In its final spectacular act, the Forever Now record will be sent into space by Florida’s Deep Space Communications team, to coincide with the MONA FOMA Festival in 2014.
Willoh S. Weiland, the Artistic Director of Aphids says, “Forever Now is the first time that curators and artists will comprehensively be able to determine what is important to send to space. If we imagine space as ‘the future’ this is important to the role of art in this context. We want the record to communicate not just the positive aspects of our culture, but instead be what it is on Earth: a diverse, polymorphic voice articulating what is wonderful as well as what is complex, difficult and sublime about humanity”.
Forever Now is a truly inspired project about unpicking cultural value and curatorial process. It is an exceptional opportunity for South Australian artists and is a thrilling presentation for Vitalstatistix’s Adhocracy 2013.
Forever Now Artist Residency
27th May – 7th June
Vitalstatistix’s Adhocracy 2013
8-10th June (Queens Birthday long weekend)
Where: Waterside Workers Hall, 11 Nile Street, Port Adelaide.
Aphids website
Performance Space website