Zuzana Sceranková

Does the machine that Anton lost his hand in still work?

Edition of postcards, September/October 2020.

Zuzana Sceranková has invited 14 artists from the Working Encounters project to get involved in an interactive exchange of postcards. The result is a new form of “mail art”, conditioned by Covid-19 and the impossibility to meet up in real space. Each participant is invited to document their postcard and publish it online. You can see the original postcards here and the reactions will be published in October. Stay tuned.

Superheroes are usually there to do things. What if (for whatever reason) they suddenly couldn’t touch anything anymore? As if they were stuck. Unable to do, touch, move or save things. Becoming a thing among other things.

Hito Steyerl points out that “things are never just inert objects, passive items, or lifeless shucks, but consist of tensions, forces, hidden powers, all being constantly exchanged”. Imagine if the potential agency of superheroes could be passed to things. Imagine the resulting superpowers of things, images and postcards.

The postcard is an invitation to a long-distance handshake. Enabling us to do, touch, move and save things. Or to become a thing. Nice to meet you. Ouch! A paper cut.