The exhibition TechnoCare investigates the marginalisation of care work by exploring technological and aesthetic mediation attempts of care within contemporary artistic practice. It presents works that intersect the aesthetic, social, and ethical dimensions of care, focusing on the technology-based building and cultivation of relationships.
Care work, often feminised, underpaid, and disdained, forms an essential interpersonal glue for society. The exhibition TechnoCare at Kunstraum Niederoesterreich directly confronts the significant gap between the relevance of care work and its societal marginalisation. It probes how this divide can be overcome by investigating how care is technologically and aesthetically mediated, a practice gaining traction in contemporary art. The exhibition poses critical questions: Can aesthetic experiences cultivate caring behaviours? Can artworks themselves become active agents of care? Moreover, it explores the potential for care to transcend spatial, temporal, or emotional distances, or if it is inherently characterized by closeness and direct contact.
Curated by Katharina Brandl and Friederike Zenker, TechnoCare features artistic works that explore the intricate interplay between the aesthetic, social, and ethical dimensions of care, not only between people but also in human-animal relationships. The core of these artistic investigations lies in the technology-based processes of building, cultivating, reviving, and critiquing relationships, offering a nuanced perspective on the evolving landscape of care in the modern world.