@rt Outsiders 2009 Explores Extreme Environments at Maison Européenne de la Photographie

For its tenth anniversary, the @rt Outsiders festival presented '(In)habitable? The Art of Extreme Environments' at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris from September 9 to October 11, 2009. Co-curated by Jean-Luc Soret and Annick Bureaud, the exhibition featured fourteen artists whose works ranged from nostalgic depictions of a disappearing world to futuristic visions of confined or uninhabited territories. Highlights included Peter Cusack's 'Sounds from Dangerous Places, Chernobyl' (2006-2009), Andrea Polli's 'Sonic Antarctica' (2007-2008), Catherine Rannou's 'Colonisation 2041' (2009), Lucy + Jorge Orta's 'Antarctic Village – No Borders' (2007-2008) and 'Passeport Universel Antarctique', Hu Jie Ming's 'Altitude Zero' (2006), Howard Boland & Laura Cinti's 'The Martian Rose' (2007-2009), Shiro Matsui's 'EP04 – Dewey's Forest' (2009), and Ana Rewakowicz's 'SleepingBagDress Prototype II' (2004-2005). The exhibition examined how artists serve as sensitive laboratories for necessary adaptation, emphasizing human presence in extreme environments through sound, everyday objects, and utopian gestures.