The collaborative and multifaceted project takes as its point of departure the media theorist and activist Franco “Bifo” Berardi’s book After The Future (AK Press, 2011), considering his admonishment of economic futurisms and advocacy for living slowly in the infinite present.

eva International After the Future insists aesthetic practices and artistic thinking have an integral role at the juncture of the present and past, rather than as part of a prophetic future fantasy. The situation in Ireland, while not unique within Europe’s current economic meltdown or within the economic and political changes occurring in the over-developed West, provides an acute location to consider the conditions in which we live from a global and transversal perspective. The economically precarious position this European republic finds itself in foregrounds the urgency of needing to think radically and differently for now.

“This is why the future is over. We are living in a space that is beyond the future. If we come to terms with this post-futuristic condition, we can renounce accumulation and growth and be happy sharing the wealth that comes from past industrial labor and present collective intelligence.”
Franco Berardi (Bifo), The Future After the End of the Economy (e-flux Journal #30, Dec. 2011)

eva International After the Future features a central exhibition curated by Annie Fletcher, Curator of Exhibitions at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, selected from over 2000 proposals from 76 countries, and is accompanied by a series of intense collaborations with local, national and international partners.

eva International takes place from May 19 to August 12, 2012, in various locations across Limerick City, Ireland.