Vitreous Sky

Marko Batista

The multi-channel sound installation Vitreous Sky by the intermedia artist Marko Batista is a continuation of his unique artistic reflection and exploration of modern post-fact society in the light of technological progress, or, to put it simply, the relations within the human- nature-technology triangle, in the context of ecocritical discourse, environmental policies and pressing humanist concepts (nature,the Anthropocen(trism), the capitalist colonial matrix, etc.). It is somewhat a continuance of the positions formed by the artist in the Fluid Particles of Volcanic Ash (Gallery 001, 2017). Through the apocalyptic scenario, the viewer – despite the absence of the human – indirectly faces their presence, a deep foot print on the face of the planet long after their extinction. The Vitreous Sky installation revolves around two precisely crafted hybrid, visual-sound objects –prototypes of a dystopian habitat of our futures, created by the artist to deal with the project on two interrelated levels, i.e., the symbolic and the physical level of artistic representation. This multi-channel sound installation is a visual-and- audio composition. Produced by a 3D printer, the visual part comprises a two-part mimetic installation of the urban and rural habitats that illustrates their apparent division. Indeed,Batista is fully aware of the interlinkage, influence, and interdependence of all elements that constitute a respective system, as in his artworks, he principally explores different networks. The sonic structure of the installation rests on the electrolysis of toxic compounds, which produce a sound within an extended electronic system in the process of self-oscillation and extraction. Its central position gives matter agency,endowing the work with openness in becoming and a room for surprise. Marko Batista does not select the elements, or better yet, matter and materialities of his installations only to explore but always to reflect,which allows him to move away from moralism and enter into open, always fluid, and changing spaces over which even the artist can not exercise complete control.


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