Billennium, an installation by artist Anna Moreno
Billennium is the result of an investigation into the communal and modular architecture that emerged from the studio of Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill in the 1970s, combined with the literature of sci-fi writer J.G. Ballard. In 1962, Ballard wrote Billennium, a story that describes the claustrophobia and paralysis of an overcrowded world. Billennium departs from the symbol of the bee as a floating signifier and relocates in the discontinuous line between utopia and dystopia in architecture, a balancing exercise that is repeated in the entire installation at a structural level. Adding to Ballard's scenario, Moreno speculates on a post-apocalyptic future in which honey, rather than gold or petrol, would act as the main value marker.
Anna Moreno (Barcelona, 1984) lives and works in Barcelona and The Hague (Netherlands). Her art practice develops through expanded events and solo exhibitions such as D'ahir d'abans d'ahir de l'altre abans d'ahir i més d'abans encara, Fundació Blueproject, Barcelona, 2016; The Whole World Was Singing, HIAP Project Space, Helsinki, 2016 and An Awkward Game, 1646, The Hague, 2015. She has shown her work in the group shows En los cantos nos diluímos, Sala de Arte Joven, Madrid, 2017; Distopía General, Reales Atarazanas, Valencia, 2017: CAPITALOCEAN, W139, Amsterdam, 2016; Lo que ha de venir ya ha llegado, CAAC in Sevilla, MUSAC, at León and Koldo Mitxelena in Donostia, 2015, and Generaciones, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, 2014, among others. Anna Moreno's work has been featured at symposia such as Visual Activism, SFMOMA, San Francisco, 2014, and United We Organize, Stroom Den Haag, The Hague, 2013. The artist has participated in residencies at Artistas en residencia, CA2M and La Casa Encendida, Móstoles and Madrid, 2017; Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, Seoul, 2012, and Atelierhaus Salzamt, Linz, 2011.
Anna Moreno teaches Artistic Research at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, where she is a founding member of HELICOPTER, an artist-run initiative for experimentation and knowledge exchange.