Having grown up in Hoog-Keppel, a small town in near the Dutch/German border, Jochem Esser (1988, NL) uses the contrast between tradition and being the son of an employee of the tech-company IBM in his work. Through IBM he came into contact with advanced technology at an early age. Drawing upon this he created a fascination for complex autonomous systems. Using this in his work he expanded visually into relations between plants, architecture, factories, humans and computer systems. His work mixes traditional crafts with technology and pre-made objects. With this he creates installations that explore alienation from a way of relating to these subjects.

The work “Mono Culture” (or, simply, MC.315) reflects on what is natural and what is not. In this work Jochem contemplates; what qualifies to be alive? If a plant is dependent on technological systems to live in an environment, does this mean these systems are part of the organism itself? Does life have to be biological? Can a synthetic autonomous system be alive as well?

Questions like these are forged into an installation that will be presented during This Art Fair 2016.