‘H.O.R.I.Z.O.N.’ Digital Commune at the Guggenheim Museum

‘H.O.R.I.Z.O.N.’ Digital Commune at the Guggenheim H.O.R.I.Z.O.N. Digital Commune is now live, marking the close of ‘Countryside, The Future’, on view through February 15 at the Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Source: Guggenheim Museum, New York.

On view through February 15, Countryside, The Future is an exhibition addressing urgent environmental, political, and socioeconomic issues through the lens of architect and urbanist Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal, Director of AMO, the think tank of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). This timely exhibition investigates the radical changes happening in the “countryside,” or the rural, remote, and wild territories that make up the 98% of the Earth’s surface not occupied by cities. The themes examined in the exhibition, which opened in early 2020, have proved prescient in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, include migration, climate change, modern ideas of leisure, large-scale land planning by political forces, human and nonhuman ecosystems, market-driven preservation, and the possibilities of artificial and organic coexistence.

Developed as a model for public engagement in a time when physical gathering is limited, H.O.R.I.Z.O.N. functions as a “digital commune,” set within a virtual landscape. Taking inspiration from utopian communities like Lavender Hill, a bygone queer commune in Ithaca, NY, the game invites the public to participate in creating an open archive of original content around themes such as ecology, queerness, and self-sovereign living. The goal of H.O.R.I.Z.O.N. is to assemble a repository of shared information, tools, and an active community around new takes on ecologically conscious practices to inspire change. On February 20 and 21, the virtual stage within H.O.R.I.Z.O.N. will serve as the venue for a launch festival consisting of virtual programs, including workshops, performances, and artist talks.