Archaeologists of the future: prophets, messages, and the labor of reconstruction Memories of the future Cold War Anxieties: from Splitnik to Sputnik The last frontier: space is the place This was tomorrow. Ruin value, and obsolescence: must planned cities always end in the graveyard of failed utopias? 4 Tomorrow Was Already Here The past two decades have witnessed major shifts in contem- porary art practices towards what some critics and art histo- rians have identified alternatively as the “archival impulse” and the “historiographic turn;” History itself has become an important subject-matter as well as a medium for contem- porary artists who favour the representational apparatuses of archival formats such as film, video and photography as prime vehicles for their historiographic endeavours. Tomorrow Was Already Here is an exhibition that attempts to trace a particular thread of the current historiographic turn in contemporary art by showcasing the work of artists who cast a retrospective gaze towards past visions of the future. The title of the show refers to the device of the predestina- tion paradox, characteristic of time-travel related science fic- tion, whereby a traveller from the future travels to the past and, more often than not, effects irreversible changes in the future, which result in the traveller’s erasure from it. Thus, tomorrow returns as a spectral presence from the past; it is no longer within our reach. Though not included in the ex- hibition, Chris Marker’s La Jetée is an overarching presence in the exhibition and the time-loop paradox that lies at the heart of the exhibition pays tribute to his work. 5 The spectres of modernity and its utopian visions of the fu- ture haunt this exhibition, constructed upon some of the predictive cultural imaginaries at the height of the Cold War, many of which intersect the realm of science fiction and are set against three backdrops: anxiety in the face of nuclear annihilation; space travel and colonization as a powerful tro- pe in the culture of the time; and architecture as the visible realm in which many utopian undertakings of the past took concrete form. Works from the collection of the Museo Tamayo serve to contextualize the three realms explored by the exhibition in small period displays, which function as time-capsules, with art works of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s that engage in a reflection on similar themes, but also present different iterations of the modern. The notion of potentiality, of the future that could have been but never happened, pervades this exhibition. The works convey, at times, a nostalgic sense of loss in coming to terms with the unrealized potential of the twentieth century’s vi- sions of the future. But more importantly, these artists, through their works, engage history as a way of understand- ing the present and constructing a vision of the future by invoking, yet again, the specter of utopia. 6 Archaeologists of the future: prophets, messages, and the labor of reconstruction Kenneth Armitage Carol Bove Fernando Bryce Mathias Goeritz Simon Starling 7 The exhibition’s structure mirrors, in great part, the aesthetic strategies deployed by the participating artists in their works. It also relies on the works as conceptual platforms that contri- bute new readings and establish dialogues with nearby works or thematic groups. This small room functions as a preamble to the exhibition and the works in it play an articulating role for what follows, in terms of conceptual operations, and the- matic content. The operations of reconstruction, historical inquiry, and reflection, as well as the reading of modernity’s visions of the future through predictive imaginaries that function as messages from the past are conveyed by the diffe- rent works in this room. Carol Bove and Simon Starling engage in distinct and diverse processes of historical reconstruction, Fernando Bryce’s drawings of Walter Benjamin point to the continued medita- tion on history that takes place in this exhibition. The his- torical works from the collection by Kenneth Armitage and Mathias Goeritz respectively allude to the act of prediction and its communication by way of messages; furthermore, they introduce but also make more complex the structure of the period room that repeats itself throughout the rest of the exhibition. 8 List of works Archaeologists of the future: prophets, messages, and the labor of reconstruction Kenneth Armitage Mathias Goeritz (Leeds, United Kingdom, 1916 - (Danzig, Germany, 1915 - London, 2002) Mexico City, 1990) Small Prophet Version ii, 1962 Mensaje xv, Levíticos xx: 18, 1959 Bronze, edition of 6 Message XV, Leviticus xx:18 Collection of Museo Tamayo Mixed media on fibracel inba-Conaculta Collection of Museo Tamayo, inba-Conaculta Carol Bove (Geneva, 1971) Simon Starling Viva, 2011 (Epsom, United Kingdom, 1967) Wood and metal shelves, books, Nachbau (Reconstruction), 2007 steel, bronze, framed collage, 4 gelatin silver prints feathers, fabric, thread, and paper Collection of Museo Tamayo, Courtesy of the artist and David inba-Conaculta Zwirner, New York Fernando Bryce (Lima, 1965) Walter Benjamin, 2002 Series of 10 drawings Ink on paper Courtesy of the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland Private collection, on loan 9 Memories of the future Gerard Byrne 10 Gerard Byrne’s 1984 and Beyond (2007) takes on an arti- culating role in the exhibition. The work is an installation comprised of three videos and a group of black and white photographs that address the idea of future visions that now belong to the past. The three videos alternate footage of Byrne’s staging of a conversation that took place in the pages of Playboy Magazine in the summer of 1963, between science fiction writers who were invited to talk about the future, setting the Orwellian date of 1984 as the time frame for their predictions. The predictive imaginaries conceived of by the science fiction writers in this video-installation describe the three major thematic axes in the exhibition. The spatial configuration of the room also suggests two different paths through the ex- hibition which continues towards the section that addresses the climate of apprehension, anxiety, and paranoia character- istic of the early stages of the Cold War, or conversely, the one that touches upon the utopian visions of the future that inspired modern architecture and urban planning. 11 List of works Memories of the future Gerard Byrne (Dublín, 1969) 1984 and Beyond, 2007 Three-channel video installation, nonlinear duration (approximately 60 minutes total) Set of 20 black and white photographs, vinyl, acrylic paint Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery, London 12 Cold War Anxieties: from Splitnik to Sputnik Adolph Gottlieb Barbara Hepworth Roberto Matta Henry Moore Simon Starling Johan Grimonprez Julieta Aranda 13 Aside from the threat of preemptive nuclear strikes and annihilation, The Cold War period was a complex one that witnessed a realignment of the political, economical and ideological forces that shaped the world in the second half of the twentieth century. After World War II and the devel- opment and implementation of atomic weapons, the opti- mism surrounding technological progress was dampened by questions posed around the ethical use of technology and scientific research. Nevertheless, technological progress also meant the exploration of new frontiers in all spheres of life; from the emancipatory power of home appliances that freed women from domestic labor to the conquest of spa- ce afforded by the missile technologies that had previously enabled victories on the war front. The technological race thus provided yet another arena where Cold War politics could be staged. Parallel developments in the domain of art also reflected this realignment of forces, which are made patent in the works included in the “period room,” by Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Roberto Matta and Adolph Gottlieb, which convey anxiety in the face of atomic annihilation, as well as oppres- sive visions of humanity taken over by machines. In close dialogue, the installation by Simon Starling revisits similar themes and aesthetic approaches, focusing on the idea of the monument and its commemorative function. The works by Johan Grimonprez and Julieta Aranda add another di- mension to the theme of Cold War anxieties, in the guise of temporal loops and the metaphors of time travel, addressing from individual perspectives the complexities of this period of modern history and its long-lasting effects in the cultural imaginaries of today. 14 List of works Cold War Anxieties: from Splitnik to Sputnik Adolph Gottlieb Henry Moore (New York, 1903 -1974) (Castleford, England, 1898 - Burst, 1972 Much Hadham, England, 1986) Oil and vinyl on canvas Figures with Smoke Background, 1976 Collection of Museo Tamayo, Lithograph in seven colours on inba-Conaculta TH Saunders paper, 2/15 HC Collection of Museo Tamayo, Barbara Hepworth inba-Conaculta (Wakefield, England, 1903 - St. Ives, England, 1975) Henry Moore Square Form with Circles, 1963 (Castleford, England, 1898 - Bronze, cast 3/6 Much Hadham, England, 1986) Collection of Museo Tamayo, Large Slow Form, 1962 inba-Conaculta Bronze, cast 1/9 Collection of Museo Tamayo, Roberto Matta inba-Conaculta (Santiago de Chile, 1911 - Lacio, Italy, 2002) Justified Sinner, 1952 Oil on canvas Collection of Museo Tamayo, inba-Conaculta 15 Simon Starling Julieta Aranda (Epsom, United Kingdom, 1967) (Mexico City, 1975) Project for a Temporary Public If you tell the story well, it will Sculpture