‘Prometheus Trilogy’ (2019-2023) is a poetic virtual reality (VR) retelling of the Greek myth by artist Meiro Koizumi. In its final chapter, humans have become entirely different beings through a small bio-technological operation, in a mythical future in which people, technology and nature dissolve into one another.
When humans succeed to transplant the retina cell of a butterfly into the human retina, they acquire an ability to perceive lights that only butterflies could perceive. Now, the entire world is outlined by new lights and new shadows, which revolutionises people’s experience of being and deeply transforms them.
Immersed in Koizumi’s VR experience, through which a blurring of the outlines of the body occurs, the audience is led into feeling that one is part of a collective body consisting of many other bodies, and experience a tale of transformation in what it means to be human.
It is an on-going process that technologies are triggering big changes in our instinct. The image of the fire brought by Prometheus represents the strength of human civilization and progress through technology.
Today, the challenge of art is to create another kind of image of the fire and the technology. ‘Prometheus the Fire-Bringer’ attempts to plant a small imaginative seeds in our unconscious mind, to transform the aggressive nature of the human instinct into a gentler one, and ultimately be better post-humans.
Each person will immerse themselves in the virtual reality experience independently through a Head-Mounted Display. Six people can experience the work at the same time.
Artist Meiro Koizumi also brings to Lisbon another part of this trilogy – ‘Prometheus Unbound‘ –, presented at the Studio. You can purchase a pass that includes both parts of the trilogy.
Prometheus the Fire-Bringer, by Meiro Koizumi
September 26–29, 2024
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
CAM Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
Lisbon, Portugal
