AFTER OIL!
Act 1 of the (Dis)Appearing Acts
Act 1 of the (Dis)Appearing Acts
Curatorial Statement
Oil has been an integral part of human cultural imaginations long before modern times. In the biblical account of Noah’s Ark, the use of bitumen to seal the vessel represents an early cultural understanding of the substance’s waterproof qualities. Since antiquity, humanity has harnessed “stone oil” for survival and ritual. It served to illuminate dark nights, as a weapon of ancient warfare, as medicinal ointment, and as sacred balm for the dead.
Yet, a modern turning point transformed this organic matter into our contemporary “black gold”. What began as a simple fuel for kerosene lamps soon ignited a revolution. With the invention of the internal combustion engine at the end of the 19th century, oil became the lifeblood of global energy. Beyond a source of motion, the rise of petrochemistry reshaped our material world through the synthesis of plastics and pharmaceuticals. In just over a hundred years, oil has fundamentally redefined our existence.
After Oil! looks at the moment in which the myths and histories of crude oil are transformed into technologies of energy and daily infrastructure. While many states in the Americas and West Asia have promoted their chronicles of oil explorations, the Swiss context remains largely unknown. In the post-war era, the quest for domestic oil was a pillar of the Energiepolitik and could be seen as part of the Geistiges Landesverteidigung, as energetic sovereignty was seen as indispensable for Swiss neutrality. Centering on the Swiss experience, yet considering its global implications, the exhibition reveals a modern matrix built on fossil anxiety and technological optimism.
This exhibition functions as a file-sharing platform in which the documents reproduced and the objects displayed serve as a cartography for navigating the Swiss experience of oil history. It tracks the evolution of oil from a previsible state, where geologists sensed crude oil through smell and touch, to a postvisible condition. Today, oil is everywhere and nowhere, it has been “transubstantiated” from a raw substance into the abstract numbers of financial markets. The invisibility of extraction and our immersion in consumption have obscured the social and ecological cost of our fossil-fueled “freedom”. To move toward an “after oil” scenario requires us to recognize that the energy transition is not just a technological challenge, but a cultural one.
Featuring works by Benjamin Heller, Pia Matthes and Marthe Timm alongside reproductions from:
ETH Bildarchiv
ETH Bibliothek
ETH Mineralogisch-Petrographische Sammlung
Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv
Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv
Swissvotes
Shell Historical Heritage Archive
Museum für Gestaltung
Alexander Wyler (Petromobilia.ch)
Staatsarchiv Schwyz
Archiv ZHdK
SRF
AVA Scheiner AG
Situationniste Blog und Archiv
Internet Archive
With a panel discussion between Laura Hindelang, Monika Gisler and Sigrid Adorf.
The project was supported by:
Oil has been an integral part of human cultural imaginations long before modern times. In the biblical account of Noah’s Ark, the use of bitumen to seal the vessel represents an early cultural understanding of the substance’s waterproof qualities. Since antiquity, humanity has harnessed “stone oil” for survival and ritual. It served to illuminate dark nights, as a weapon of ancient warfare, as medicinal ointment, and as sacred balm for the dead.
Yet, a modern turning point transformed this organic matter into our contemporary “black gold”. What began as a simple fuel for kerosene lamps soon ignited a revolution. With the invention of the internal combustion engine at the end of the 19th century, oil became the lifeblood of global energy. Beyond a source of motion, the rise of petrochemistry reshaped our material world through the synthesis of plastics and pharmaceuticals. In just over a hundred years, oil has fundamentally redefined our existence.
After Oil! looks at the moment in which the myths and histories of crude oil are transformed into technologies of energy and daily infrastructure. While many states in the Americas and West Asia have promoted their chronicles of oil explorations, the Swiss context remains largely unknown. In the post-war era, the quest for domestic oil was a pillar of the Energiepolitik and could be seen as part of the Geistiges Landesverteidigung, as energetic sovereignty was seen as indispensable for Swiss neutrality. Centering on the Swiss experience, yet considering its global implications, the exhibition reveals a modern matrix built on fossil anxiety and technological optimism.
This exhibition functions as a file-sharing platform in which the documents reproduced and the objects displayed serve as a cartography for navigating the Swiss experience of oil history. It tracks the evolution of oil from a previsible state, where geologists sensed crude oil through smell and touch, to a postvisible condition. Today, oil is everywhere and nowhere, it has been “transubstantiated” from a raw substance into the abstract numbers of financial markets. The invisibility of extraction and our immersion in consumption have obscured the social and ecological cost of our fossil-fueled “freedom”. To move toward an “after oil” scenario requires us to recognize that the energy transition is not just a technological challenge, but a cultural one.
Featuring works by Benjamin Heller, Pia Matthes and Marthe Timm alongside reproductions from:
ETH Bildarchiv
ETH Bibliothek
ETH Mineralogisch-Petrographische Sammlung
Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv
Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv
Swissvotes
Shell Historical Heritage Archive
Museum für Gestaltung
Alexander Wyler (Petromobilia.ch)
Staatsarchiv Schwyz
Archiv ZHdK
SRF
AVA Scheiner AG
Situationniste Blog und Archiv
Internet Archive
With a panel discussion between Laura Hindelang, Monika Gisler and Sigrid Adorf.
The project was supported by: