ARTISSIMA 2023

3 - 5 November, 2023

ANDREA CANEPA

A reverse into tomorrow is inspired by the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, a British alternative group to the Boy Scouts founded in 1920 that developed an ideology based on camping and craftsmanship, promoting a radical new form of education through outdoor activities. The Kibbo Kift was born out of disenchantment with industrial civilization after the devastation of World War I and aimed to regenerate the “urban man” through practices and rituals in nature such as camping, parades and carefully staged ceremonies. Its members were known for their distinctive attire which, along with the decoration of their tents and ceremonial staffs, blended the style of the avant garde art movements of the time with symbols and iconography of cultures they considered “primitive” and mystical.

A reverse into tomorrow, reimagines how a kindred of the kibbo kift would function in our times, broadening the aesthetics of the movement through the resignification of archaic symbols and linking it to current concerns about the future. In this new version of the group, they seek to mix the original longing for reconnection with nature with new myths and contemporary techno utopian delusions, leaving us with a sense of confusion about how to deal with the problems of the present. While inside the tent a hopeful voice speaks of leaving behind the distinction between man and nature, the textiles of the tent are adorned with latent references to databases, asteroid mining, neural networks and space travel.