Artists: Marguerite Humeau, Julian Charrière
Exhibition title: TWIN EARTH
Curated by: Nadim Samman
Venue: SALTS, Birsfelden, Switzerland
Date: June 13 – August 24, 2019
Photography: Gunnar Meier Photography / Courtesy: SALTS & the Artists
Imagine in another world in which everything is the same except for the fact that…
Other worlds are always possible, and sometimes imagining one can teach you some-thing. The American philosopher Hilary Putnam famously deployed a hypothetical Twin Earth in a thought experiment which concluded that the meanings of words are not purely psychological. Today, astrobiologists and astronomers envisage the real possibility of an Earth Twin, somewhere out there. But where? We haven’t found one yet. In any case, one doesn’t seem like enough. Instead of a single earth, we want two. One to destroy and an-other to keep; one where everything is this way, and another where it is that. More is more. Sunrise over TWIN EARTH, and another, still… to better map our contemporary spirit. TWIN EARTH is an exhibition of cosmographics by Marguerite Humeau and Julian Charrière. In dialogue with curator Nadim Samman, its rubric re-scales the pair’s abid-ing interest in planetary thematics (normally realized through large-scale installations), foregrounding their common interest in mapping. Through numerous works on paper and mixed media, TWIN EARTH is an atlas of hypothetical worlds, uncanny doubles, and new ways to look at old ground.
Marguerite Humeau (born in 1986) is a French artist living in London. She graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2011. Her work focuses on communication between worlds. She called herself ‘Indiana Jones in Google Times.’ Julian Charrière (born in 1987) is a Franco-Swiss artist based in Berlin whose work combines environmental science and cultural history. Nadim Samman, PhD, (born in 1983) is a longstanding collaborator with both artists. His recent exhibitions have focused on the passage from materiality to myth. TWIN EARTH is a part of an ongoing series of exhibitions and publications that make up An Imaginary Museum of Philosophical Monsters, initiated by philosopher Dehlia Hannah.
