MAGICAL HACKERISM.
OR THE ELASTICITY OF RESILIENCE

Exhibition view | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Exhibition view | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Theresah Ankomah: Untitled | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Theresah Ankomah: Untitled | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Theresah Ankomah: Untitled | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Theresah Ankomah: Untitled | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Cem Sonel: Imperfect Symmetry | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Cem Sonel: Imperfect Symmetry | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Erick Beltrán: Superposition | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Erick Beltrán: Superposition | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Shailesh BR: Prayer Machine | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Shailesh BR: Prayer Machine | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Shailesh BR: Prayer Machine | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Shailesh BR: Prayer Machine | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Exhibition view | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Exhibition view | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Tania Candiani: Subaviático | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Tania Candiani: Subaviático | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Los Carpinteros: Conga Irreversible | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Los Carpinteros: Conga Irreversible | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Nolan Oswald Dennis: further notes 4 a planet (wilfully) | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Nolan Oswald Dennis: further notes 4 a planet (wilfully) | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Nolan Oswald Dennis: un voile inflation model | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Nolan Oswald Dennis: un voile inflation model | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Exhibition view | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Exhibition view | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Abel Rodríguez: Guacury & Bosque Vega | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Abel Rodríguez: Guacury & Bosque Vega | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Juliana Dos Santos: Sambiência | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Juliana Dos Santos: Sambiência | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Joiri Minaya: The Cloaking Series | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Joiri Minaya: The Cloaking Series | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Eliécer Salazar: "Mike Char lee el discurso sobre el colonialismo de Aimé Césaire mientras un par de boys hacen el famoso giro decolonial" [In the background: Joiri Minaya: The Cloaking Series] | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Eliécer Salazar: "Mike Char lee el discurso sobre el colonialismo de Aimé Césaire mientras un par de boys hacen el famoso giro decolonial" [In the background: Joiri Minaya: The Cloaking Series] | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Exhibition view | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Exhibition view | Photo: Marvin Systermans

Magical Hackerism refers to this essential hacking of reality and the rendering of a multiplicity of worlds. 

The etymology of the word Tropics comes from the ancient belief that the sun turned back at the solstices, the Tropikós, from the greek word τροπή – meaning the point where things turn. Magical Hackerism is the manifestation of the Tropical Turn as a mindset.

Since the conception of the globe, a one-world way of being has been positioned as our main cosmology. A cosmology can be understood as a set of principles or a framework that determines our understandings of the planet, our ways of being, and ways of relating to each other. Consequently, our responses and response·abilities are conditioned by our cosmologies and frameworks too. The dominant cosmology of globalism is deeply rooted in modern binary understandings of the planet with embedded hierarchies in them: nature / culture, civilized / savage, West / East, the so-called Global North / South. Whatever is done at one side of the line is validated whereas what is done at the other side is rendered invisible. The computational thinking of solutionism and optimization has made us impose an homogenizing universal system into communities and environments for the sake of progress and civilization. Often, whenever a post-capitalist scenario is envisioned, it is still conceived as a single global system. We ask ourselves:  To which extent will we keep perpetuating the verticalities we have performed so far? There’s no single answer for the complexities of our planet but rather multiple responses. How can we alter the way we respond to the climate emergency and (Post-)COVID–19 realities? How can we render a multiplicity of worlds and ways of being?

In this collaborative thought-do-flow experiment, the neighbours SAVVY Contemporary and panke.gallery come together to examine various forms of technologies from a Tropikós perspective (both as region and as mindset), in order to diversify and redistribute the networks of technologies and cultural imaginaries towards pluriversal understandings of the planet. With this constellation, we aim to complexify the dominant cosmology of modern binary divisions and systems of classification, disrupt the vertical sight in our relationship to natural, artificial and hybrid environments and establish dialogues between a multiplicity of worlds and cosmologies that exist by themselves and not by opposing to a contrary.

With Magical Hackerism, we have the intention of pluriversing technologies in order to assemble means that render a multiplicity of realities. More than a recognition, it is the opportunity for a re·cognition: to rewire the root code of what we think makes us human. We are interested in the tropisms that keep life in motion. Despite an existence that is against all odds, and evens, and binaries, technologies of life bloom and outlive the technologies of mass distraction and dis·location. 

Aarati Akkapeddi: I knew that if I walked in your footsteps, it would become a ritual  | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Aarati Akkapeddi: I knew that if I walked in your footsteps, it would become a ritual | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Aarati Akkapeddi: I knew that if I walked in your footsteps, it would become a ritual  | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Aarati Akkapeddi: I knew that if I walked in your footsteps, it would become a ritual | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Cian Dayrig & Mark Sanchez: Agrev Algorithm | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Cian Dayrig & Mark Sanchez: Agrev Algorithm | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Jung Hsu & Natalia Rivera: Bi0film.net: Resist like bacteria | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Jung Hsu & Natalia Rivera: Bi0film.net: Resist like bacteria | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Sindicato Virtual de Mods & Club Matryoshka: Guaracha Budots | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Sindicato Virtual de Mods & Club Matryoshka: Guaracha Budots | Photo: Marvin Systermans
aruma: e-llapa | Photo: Marvin Systermans
aruma: e-llapa | Photo: Marvin Systermans
aruma: e-llapa | Photo: Marvin Systermans
aruma: e-llapa | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Gabriella Torres-Ferrer: (Untitled) Piñas, coladas | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Gabriella Torres-Ferrer: (Untitled) Piñas, coladas | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Corinne de San Jose: 59.59 | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Corinne de San Jose: 59.59 | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Vernelle A. Noel: Carnival AI | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Vernelle A. Noel: Carnival AI | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Sahej Rajal: finalforest.exe | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Sahej Rajal: finalforest.exe | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Sheila Nakitende: ABAANA Ba KINTU  | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Sheila Nakitende: ABAANA Ba KINTU | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Wakaliga: Isaak Ninja | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Wakaliga: Isaak Ninja | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Gossip Corner | Photo: Marvin Systermans
Gossip Corner | Photo: Marvin Systermans