Fellow Travellers

With »Fellow Travellers« we are creating a polyphonic and dynamic exhibition space at ZKM, through which artists, scientists, communities, and citizens can collaborate and learn from each other. Collectively, we want to find new, practical ways to shape our planetary coexistence. 

Our shared human history is a testament to our ability to work together to achieve remarkable things. However, we have also managed to build the economic and power structures that today have unbalanced the Earth so drastically. It seems now that we are on the verge of collapse, triggered by the effects of rapid technological progress. Problems in the areas of climate, the economy, regional conflicts, cultural identity, migration flows, and resource scarcity urgently need to be addressed. Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, bioscience, robotics, and technology also present us with enormous challenges yet to come.

So far, we have not succeeded in realizing an alternative form of society that could bring our world back into balance. But even though great utopias such as communism have failed, most of the people continue to share the ideals of a just, communal society. These intellectual companions, or “Fellow Travellers” as they were called in the 20th century, still exist today. However, this type of fellowship is no longer based on a political doctrine, but on the goal of creating a culture and an environment worth living in. All over the world, artists and activists are using technological tools in their everyday lives, at a local level, to change the world around them. Geographic location is becoming less of a factor in the ability of communities to have agency. It should now be possible to enable a growing network of these multiple and diverse projects, generating and implementing ideas across and beyond the traditional centers of power.

Modernist art was based on the desire to change the world, but the influences of markets and museums have repeatedly reduced it to “art for art's sake”. While socially and politically engaged art has often been critical and challenging, it is actual practical change that we should now be concerned with.

The »Fellow Travellers« exhibition at ZKM aims to capture this spirit and run with it. The artistic projects on display do not just present ideas or highlight problems. They all strive to overcome the traditions of representation and move into action and implementation by actively changing their environment. At a time when we fear for the future, these projects and their stories give us hope and inspiration. As such, this exhibition is not conceived as a static presentation, it is also intended to have an impact outside the museum – as a laboratory in which ideas and tools can be exchanged and new projects can grow and be added to: a hive of tactics and techniques to change the world.

At the heart of the exhibition is the »Useum«: a place that can be used by people to connect these ideas and projects and develop new solutions, a place where we can address the issues affecting our locality in correspondence with active communities in other specific places around the globe. It is a place for making and doing together in fellowship.