The exhibition "Petromelancholia" opens this Friday in Rotterdam, do check it out if you’re in the area. It is curated by Alexander Klose from the group "Beauty of
Oil". Our Bernhard Hopfengärtner has contributed a series of narrative audio works set in various post-oil future scenarios.
"Petromelancholia" is the condition that the US energy humanities scholar Stephanie LeMenager diagnosed as being at the core of her home country's cultural and
political struggle to hang on to "oil culture ". The more people realize that the age of oil is eventually going to end—and has to in regard to the state of the
planet—the harder they cling on to it. Following this diagnosis, the world has lately been swept by waves of petromelancholia. Acknowledging the long-lasting success of these
dynamics of denial, which started 50 years ago, a mere "energy transition" might turn out to be not enough to get over modernity's true love.
Wouldn't we also need acceptance and grief, reconciliation and reparations—processes that eventually lead to profound cultural, political and economic transitions?
(Excerpt from one of the exhibition’s wall texts)
For the german-speakers among you, here is a review by
Deutschlandfunk Kultur
.
