The Famine

The Famine installation is based on the long-standing interest of the Handa Gote group in the reflection of ecological themes in art. Group’s focus returns to the theme of the installation used in the Prales(Deep Forest) performance in 2012. The creators were inspired by an internet scandal from 2010, describing an incident in a Spanish solar power plant that illuminated photovoltaic panels at night with light powered by a diesel generator. This senseless closed circle with a hypothetical resulting efficiency of around 0.5% served the group as a metaphor for a society dependent on energy and consumption. In the performance Prales, the whole light design was realized by small
light sources powered by a system of photovoltaic panels and a big amount of theater lights, with huge energy losses.

In the installation Famine, Handa Gote presents an auto-cannibalistic system, where the energy obtained from a number of other anonymous potatoes is used to grow a single selected potato using a complex control apparatus, which, however, consumes most of the energy only on itself. The electronic devices used in the installation come from a kind of electronic prehistory, and the whole system thus seems like some archaic attempt at some primitive bio-electronic system. The use of old devices is one of the trademarks of the group, which continuously deals with the use of technology in art, as well as pointing out the problems that technology brings. In their works, Handa Gote often use a combination of the latest and outdated technology and media archaeology.

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Prepared by: Dörner, Procházka, Smolík
Production: Jedefrau.org
Photo: Martin Popelář