What happens when the consequences of human actions are so pervasive and profound that everything on Earth becomes artificial to some degree?
Based on the 2021 book “A Bestiary of the Anthropocene.” An illustrated compilation of hybrid creatures of our time, equally inspired by medieval bestiaries and observations of our damaged planet. Designed as a field handbook, it aims to help us observe, navigate, and orient ourselves in the increasingly artificial fabric of the world.
Plastiglomerates, surveillance robot dogs, fordite, artificial grass, antenna trees, Sars-Covid-2, decapitated mountains, drone-fighting eagles, standardized bananas... each of these specimens is symptomatic of the rapidly transforming “post-natural” era we live in. Often, without us even noticing them, these creatures exponentially spread and co-exist with us.
A Bestiary of the Anthropocene seeks to capture this precise moment when the biosphere and technosphere merge and mesh into one new hybrid body. What happens when technologies and their unintended consequences become so ubiquitous that it is difficult to define what is “natural” or not? What does it mean to live in a hybrid environment made of organic and synthetic matter? What new specimens are currently populating our planet at the beginning of the 21st century?
This 20-minute video essay explores the most iconic specimens from the book A Bestiary of the Anthropocene, combining video footage from around the world. This two-channel video exposes the hybrid beings with which humans are now coexisting in the Anthropocene era, merging the natural and the artificial in various forms and degrees.
Co-commissioned by the Max Ernst Museum and Diriyah Art Futures, this new video work is presented alongside a large-scale installation featuring a collection of physical specimens.
Installation & video essay, 2 channels 4K, stereo audio, 20 minutes (for 2 synchronised 4K displays)
Objects, video, music, design & illustrations: DISNOVATION.ORG | Research & book: Nicolas Nova & DISNOVATION.ORG
Design & illustrations: Maria Roszkowska (DISNOVATION.ORG)
Book published by Onomatopee | ISBN 978-94-93148-44-4
Video essay co-commissionned by Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, DE & Diriyah Art Futures, SAU
Video essay, Right channel only 4K, stereo audio, 15 minutes. Video available on vimeo
Video essay, 2 channels 4K, stereo audio, 20 minutes. Video available on vimeo
Built from found video materials, the essay brings the specimens of The Bestiary of the Anthropocene into view as they appear in the world: embedded in everyday situations, infrastructures, landscapes, and human-made environments.
Exhibition Views
Exhibitions
Of The Earth, Diriyah Art Futures, 2025 [SAU]
Hypercreatures, Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, 2025 [DE]
Festival Scopitone, Stereolux, Nantes, 2025 [FR]
Triennale Fellbach, 2025 [DE]
Anticipation Festival, La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris, 2024 [FR]
Horizons of Post-Growth, Galeria Arsenał elektrownia, Białystok, 2024 [PL]
Máquina Orgánica, Teatros del Canal, Madrid, 2023 [ES]
Po wzroście | Post Growth, Rondo Sztuki Art Gallery, Katowice, 2023 [PL]
Der lange Schatten des Aufwärtspfeils, Langenthal, 2023 [CH]
Donau Festival, 2023 [AT]
Symbiosium, Fondation Fiminco, Romainville, 2023 [FR]
Na De Groei, Impakt, Utrecht, 2022 [NL]
MetaMorf, Trøndelag senter for samtidskunst, Trondheim, 2022 [NOR]
Plus que vivant, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, 2022 [FR]
A Bestiary of the Anthropocene, Théâtre de l'Orangerie, Genève, 2021 [CH]
Post Growth [Après la croissance], UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, 2021 [BE]
