Leviathan: A Capitalocene Beastiarium is a research-based exhibition project, which unpacks “human nature” and “law of nature”, inspired by Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan (1651) [1] and  Capitalocene, a concept coined by Jason W. Moore and Donna Haraway. Hobbes’ Leviathan is recognized as one of the first texts to criticize existing power relationships, problems of collective violence and the instrumentalization of religion for the implementation of a class hierarchy.

Leviathan represents capitalism’s giant systems, hierarchies, and infrastructures designed to mandate, oppress, and manage human and non-human beings and finally reinforce the anthropocentric position of humankind. Hobbes discussed the power of human masses, or collectives, and the constant aggression of humans against each other, which seems to describe the Capitalocene era.

On the edge of the sixth mass extinction, ecological crisis, and the alienation of humans from the non-human world, Leviathan is still standing. It continues to expand – enlarging and invading the mind, society, politics, and natureculture. Leviathan is everywhere, we cannot see it, but we feel its breath at the back of our necks.

The exhibition criticizes the structures of capitalism and patriarchy in relation to Hobbes’ Leviathan and Capitalocene concept, which Moore and Haraway proposed against the Anthropocene era. The invited works are pointing to the destruction of the Earth’s ecologies through such systems. Positioning Kaethe Wenzel’s Leviathan (2020), the exhibition discusses these systems and their impact on social, economic, and ecological spheres.

Artists: Yoav Admoni, Lisa Glauer, Tea Mäkkipää, Sybille Neumeyer, Jaanika Peerna, Moran Sanderovich, Kaethe Wenzel, Michael John Whelan

Conceptualization and Co-curation: Tuçe Erel, Lisa Glauer, and Kaethe Wenzel

When? Where?
8 July - 25 July 2021 | Thursday - Sunday, 3 - 8pm
TOP Transdisciplinary Project Space
Schillerpromenade 4
12049 Berlin

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