What is a Critical Zone?

It is a notion invented by Earth scientists to bring together many different disciplines that have not collaborated sufficiently in the past. Whether you study water, soil, plants, rocks, weather, or animal life, all of those phenomena are confined to a very thin domain when compared to the whole of planet Earth, as viewed from outer space. The Critical Zone is just a few kilometers thick. It is the only region of the Earth that has been transformed by life over many eons. It is also the only part of the world that you have any chance to experience directly with your senses. Although human activity is barely visible at the planetary scale–not to mention the scale of the universe–it is hugely disruptive at the scale of this thin, fragile, and highly complex Critical Zone. This is why we need to learn how it behaves just as much as we need to know how our body functions. And yet, although we have a vast number of tools and instruments to monitor our bodily health, we don’t have many to monitor the health of the Critical Zone in which we humans live–as well as all of the life forms on which we depend. This domain is called “critical” because this tiny part of the Earth on which we are totally dependent has entered into a sort of intensive care. All efforts should be made to sustain its well-being.

About the Exhibition at J.D.A. Perera Gallery

»Critical Zones. In Search of a Common Ground« shows a selection of the artistic positions exhibited at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and is complemented by further works from Indian and Sri Lankan artists. The exhibition is conceived in a way to give the visitors a feeling for this new territory,-Critical Zone, and also to make tangible the entanglements and interdependencies between different entities inhabiting the Critical Zone. The coming together of scientific knowledge and artistic sensitivity seeks to develop a kind of sensorium to understand our existence as entangled with all life-forms coinhabiting and shaping the Critical Zone. We invite our visitors to take an active part in this endeavor of reorientation within this space , the fragility of which is being uncovered and confirmed every day.

A Fieldbook – which is an exhibition brochure – accompanies you, showing one of a multitude of paths you can take and allowing you to take field notes, and describe your position within this dense texture of traces and codependencies. The task of recomposing a common ground can only be done collectively. Download Fieldbook (PDF, 10 MB)

Travelling Exhibition
Critical Zones Colombo

»Critical Zones. In Search of a Common Ground« was on view from 11 - 27 November, 2022 at J.D.A. Perera Gallery in Colombo. Mira Hirtz and Daria Mille are the curators of this traveling exhibition that was conceived and first exhibited at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and is based on a concept by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel.

Exhibition Views

Past Events

Talks, Tours and Performances

Guided Tour with Francesca-Romana Audretsch

Join Francesca-Romana Audretsch, Critical Zones Art Mediator for a guided tour through the exhibition. »Critical Zones. In Search of a Common Ground« invites us to think differently about the critical situation of the Earth - and to find our own position within it. What do we depend on?

How to change a running system

This talk will focus on Chullaka's and Savera's lessons learned on their journey to changing the course of their family's traditional businesses to provide sustainable packaging, transform traditional mindsets and explore the responsibility of businesses, at the intersection of people and the planet, to be regenerative and in service to our living ecology.

with Savera Weerasinghe und Chullaka Hapuarachchi

Critical Coast Excursion

Join us on a coastal excursion, led by Blue Resources Trust on the popular marine sanctuary Hikkaduwa Beach for a critical and informative beach walk, coupled with optional extracurricular activities.

with Blue Resources Trust

Moving through critical zones

Contemporary movement artists Kanchana Malshani, Pathum Dharmarthna, Indika Lakmal, Bhagya Virajini, Sashika Madushan and Daham Anuradha devise an artistic response to the positions and philosophies of Critical Zones through a visual and embodying process across the JDA Perera Gallery.

with Kanchana Malshani, Pathum Dharmarathna, Indika Lakmal, Bhagya Virajini, Sashika Madushan and Daham Anuradha

Workshops

Fermentation Station

A functional glance into the magical world of microbes that have aided humanity in its search for abundance and flavor. Gain an understanding of the basic principles and practices of the fermentation of foods and drinks.

with Givanke Goonetilleke of Laa Dhalu and SNAFU project

Repurposing Workshop

Exploring ideas and processes relating to spatial existences in physical, conceptual and lived spaces connected to our minds, societies and environments. Artists Chinthaka Thenuwara and Poornima Jayasinghe experiment with ‘time’ as a symbolic process, and use objects and elements that are connected to ecology and environmental sustainability.

with CoCA Symbiosis