The questions we ask today are instrumental in shaping tomorrow’s world. Tomorrow is the Question focuses on our common future. A group exhibition of international contemporary art eliciting reflection and discussion of present and future challenges.
Play a game of table tennis, see a red-hot globe, allow yourself to be cleansed by an all-enveloping interactive waterfall. ARoS’ first temporary exhibition in 2019 shows how it is possible, using art as a facilitator and catalyst, to highlight the biggest and most complex issues facing our time. The exhibition takes as its point of departure the UN’s seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and invites the audience to reflect on the world of tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the Question is created in a curatorial collaboration between ARoS and Luise Faurschou and has been underway for three years. Luise Faurschou is director of the organisation ART 2030 whose goal is to link art to the SDGs. ART 2030 has been dubbed the most ambitious art project of all time by the international art platform artnet.
The exhibition presents works by fifteen international contemporary artists. A common denominator of these works is their capability, in a particularly powerful, visual, and sensuous way, to communicate the fact that we live in times of upheaval. The participating artists collectively focus on the huge challenges currently facing us in a form that gives rise to contemplation about the state of the world, calling for dialogue, innovative thinking, and collective action. Collectively, the artists represent individual voices, consistently succeeding in challenging our perception of reality and habitual thinking.
In connection with the exhibition, ARoS has published a catalogue with contributions from authors who touch on both the dark and light scenarios of the present and the future in various ways. Erlend G. Høyersten, museum director, has written an essay on the need for a mental revolution, Luise Faurschou, visiting curator, introduces the exhibition and the works of art, and Tor Nørretranders, author of popular science books, has written a philosophical and optimistic essay about the potential of tomorrow’s world. Moreover, the catalogue contains two peer-reviewed research texts, one by Nanna Bonde Thylstrup and Ulrik Ekman describing the dark side of technological developments, and one by Anette Vandsø on the environment and the Anthropocene landscape.
Tomorrow is the Question is initiated and curated by Luise Faurschou, founder and director, ART 2030 and Faurschou Art Resources, in collaboration with Erlend G. Høyersten, director, ARoS.