COURAGE

Mankind has a choice. Cooperate or perish.
It is either a climate solidarity pact or a collective suicide pact
- Antonio Guterres opening address of COP27, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, 2022


The exhibition "Courage" is about probabilities, futures and seasons. Most of all, it is about courage – the courage it takes to stand your ground,
the courage it takes to resist.
In SOL, we are invited to step barefoot into a sensory landscape that, with withered leaves scattered on the floor, reminds us of the autumn, as a tangible metaphor of the time we live in; a world in free fall. The leaves are in decay - just like our civilization – but there is still the possibility of decomposing in the forest, becoming part of the soil’s ecosystem and grow up as something new.

In her biodegradable works, Signe Vad integrates speculative utopian images and ecofeminist principles of care. The works rustle, smell and live in the exhibition space. Together with the verbal and visual narratives, they appear as regenerative future fictions. The cold rawness of the room contrasts with the soft placenta cushions in warm colors of blood flesh and love.

"Jeg vil være et godt menneske”(video, 2023) reflects the artist's own position in the world; from realizing how we are all entangled in the destruction of Earth to expressing a deepfelt desire to take part in an all-encompassing change. In a video collage, we see NASA's drone footage of the desert landscape on Mars, calving glaciers in the Arctic and climate protesters in Copenhagen, all merging into a poetic, political and personal struggle of resistance led by Signe Vad.

"Jeg træder altid ind i verden" (video, 2010) was recorded in one take with a duration of 14 minutes. Here we follow the artist's external transformation in a slow and quiet pace, while her body invisibly acts as a battlefield for the fight between immune system and cancer cells.
The environment of the body is connected to the condition of the planet in various ways. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), climate change is humanity's biggest health threat. This makes us all vulnerable, but it also underlines the strength which lies within community, common action and regenerative care.

We, who are in possession of freedom of speech and we, who, live as citizens in a democracy, we are the privileged and the resourceful. We have a choice, a voice and many more lives on our conscience than just our own, if we do not actively take part in the resistance.

The good news is that we know how to turn things around
-- on climate, on finance, on conflict resolution, on and on.
We need disruption to end the destruction.
No more baby steps. No more excuses.
Look at what will happen to all of us tomorrow – and act.
- Antonio Guterres, The Secretary-General's 2023 briefing
February 6, United Nations Headquarters, NYC