Mythology & Science
The Exhibition and Catalogue
Presented in Berlin from September 2017 to April 2018, in partnership with the Musée Rodin, Paris, Mythology & Science marked a turning point in my inquiry into how matter receives spirit. The exhibition juxtaposed rare works by Auguste Rodin with contemporary interventions and my own Black Nike (2017) — a conceptual appropriation of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, produced with the Ateliers d’art de la Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais.
Conceived as my Berlin gallery’s most ambitious project, the exhibition explored four thresholds of transformation: gene editing and DNA manipulation, brain–machine interface and artificial intelligence, the quest for multi-planetary life, and the paradox of nuclear creation and destruction.
Through a Duchampian process of appropriation, the show traced a continuum from Rodin’s modeling of spirit in bronze to today’s algorithms shaping immaterial form. Together, these themes framed the paradox of modernity — the simultaneous promise of transcendence and the fear of extinction — and evoked the enduring question of whether humankind’s technological ascent fulfills or defies the ancient myths that first sought to explain creation.
As the catalogue noted:
“As one of the earliest accounts of the genesis of the world, Greek mythology has extensively influenced the culture, arts, and literature of Western civilization. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that certain aspects of the present moment — in which science and technology are the heralds of our future — feel like the realization of ancient myths.”
The accompanying catalogue served as both documentation and prologue — an early record of the encounter between the material and the immaterial that continues to define my work.
Installation views of the exhibition are available here, and the works are on display here.
This reflection forms part of my ongoing series The Jump into the Immaterial, leading toward the long-form essay St. John the Baptist vs. the Antichrist — Rodin’s Walking Man from Christ’s Baptism to the Immaterial.