Adapting on the Edge delves into the intricate and often contradictory human response to the pervasive sense of uncertainty that defines our contemporary existence. Panic is framed not merely as a state of alarm, but as a fluctuating continuum shaped by technological advancements, ecological crises, socio-political instability, and the ever-evolving understanding of the self. It emerges as a process of adaptation—one marked by a forced transformation or ongoing negotiation with the conditions of crisis that define our era.

Rather than a simple survival reaction, adaptation is understood as a dynamic and ambivalent process: it highlights vulnerability, loss of control, and fragmentation of identity, while simultaneously revealing a capacity for resilience, regeneration, and the search for new meanings. Through the lens of Rose Ansari’s paradoxical hug, Benjamin Glass’s desperation, Mauricio López’s relentless labor, Leena Mahaal’s invisible threats, and Xiyuan Zhou’s disintegrating self, the exhibition seeks to engage with a spectrum of reactions to the underlying state of panic: active confrontation with fear, passive acceptance of its inevitability, and spaces in between. Through their diverse works, the artists explore how panic can transcend its role as a moment of collapse and appear instead as a catalyst for mutation and redefinition.

Read more on the Ars Electronica website