Tiago Bom
República
31.5–1.9.2024
Like an archaeological site, remains of monuments are scattered around in the Portuguese artist Tiago Bom’s video installation, República. The pieces of polystyrene columns remind us of the beginnings of Western civilization, the cradle of democracy in antiquity. The installation provokes questions about coexistence – a precondition in the global world – where one’s survival is dependent on the goodwill of both human and non-human others. How to create a just society in a time where liberal democracies face major challenges? The columns, like an ancient city under water, might be eroded by various threats: climate change and global militarized conflicts, lack of democratic engagement and the deadlocks of dialogue. Tiago Bom, exploring the complex origins of life in his video installation, is inspired by two major literary works: Plato’s Republic and the evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis’ The Symbiotic Planet.
All living organisms today have evolved from the smallest life-forms of all, bacteria. These single-celled organisms are the common ancestors of all things alive on earth, from algae and fungi to plants and (human-) animals. But as no one can exist as an isolated entity, contact with others is a necessity for life to flourish. Challenging many of the main principles of neo-Darwinism, Lynn Margulis showed in her book The Symbiotic Planet that evolution does not happen only through random mutations and bloody struggles of animals, but through symbiogenesis: a process where different organisms unite. Symbiosis is everywhere – fungus growing on a tree trunk, birds eating parasites from the fur of mammals, and dust mites and gut bacteria in sync with their human host.
Bom’s work takes us from the bottom of the ocean to land and urban cities. Like a fish eating seaweed from shelter-providing corals, humans must build mutually beneficial relationships, too, as no individual can master everything or be completely self-sufficient. As the voice over tells, we cannot survive without the other, human or non-human. Engagement with strangers is a necessity, bringing about change, renewal, and prosperity.
Bom shows us a stone monolith, a form of rationality and perfect order, which rises towards the sky. Plato, a rationalist himself, argued that a state should be built like a human being with three constituent parts: the rational head with wisdom, below it a spiritual and courageous heart, and lowest the desires with physical pleasures. Consequently, the state should be led with wisdom by philosopher-kings, protected by courageous and dignified soldiers, and served by the ordinary citizens who provide the material foundation for the society. For the state to function harmoniously, each citizen must know their position, decided upon their personality, skills, and interests.
Importantly, it is justice that brings all three parts together, creating an ethical and moral foundation for both individual and collective life. In a healthy community, justice functions as the social consciousness of the people. Both individuals and the state have found their specialization and purpose, which binds the three parts together. Justice cannot be based on rules and norms without context, nor can it be valued only for the sake of one’s reputation or the consequences of one’s actions. According to Plato, justice must be the virtue of the state, important in itself. However, one’s position and connections in the ranks of society have much influence on how an individual regards justice – it cannot be disassociated from its context.
In the film, a starfish lies uncomfortably under another one, its many arms pushed together. When the basic needs of citizens are somewhat covered, the state begins to produce surplus to answer the requests of luxury. Its cells are endlessly multiplying as it grows and fattens itself. The wants of the people or whole nations become compulsive and one-sided. Overpopulation overwhelms the ecosystem, and one begins to breathe its own waste. The symbiotic relations begin to crumble, as there are not enough enzymes to break down the trash. Finally, a virus breaks into a weakened cell, and a war breaks out.
The dystopic images in Bom’s work remind of an infested cell in a state of stress and emergency. It cannot balance its head, heart, or stomach, and the binding component of justice begins to dissolve. Everything outside of itself is suddenly dangerous and alien, as it cannot see outside of its own urgency. Where the mutually beneficial relationships end, warplanes enter the scene, and the state of the cell becomes militarized. How to build a connection that might remind the state of its common grounds, the single-celled bacteria, the progenitors of all life?
Tiago Bom’s República, like its two major inspirations written two thousand years apart, encourages us to question the sacred norms of our cultures. Art, with its qualities to push boundaries and challenge the comforting and familiar, forms symbiosis as well. Art can create a hybrid of imageries that can shift our focus beyond the mainstream and habitual. Symbiosis, whether with art, biological organisms, or when words latch onto each other in a dialogue, creates novelty: it brings about new life-forms, species, ideas, and actions. Like a giant single cell, the planetary life is based on the delicately balanced interdependence of all life forms, where no organism is an island.
Tiago Bom, born in Lisbon in 1986 and based in Oslo, is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is deeply influenced by the biological concepts of symbiosis and autopoiesis. He graduated with an MFA from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in 2014 and has since focused on lens-based art and installation. Bom co-curated the Central Asian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2013. Notably, he was awarded the debutant prize at The Autumn Exhibition [Høstutstillingen, Oslo] in 2019 for República. His works are currently shown at The Eastern Norway exhibition [Østlandsutstillingen].