Introduction

What if aliens were in love with us? What would change?

Alienarium 5 is a speculative environment that invites us to imagine possible encounters with extraterrestrials. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s first major institutional solo show in the UK since TH.258 at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in 2008, the exhibition is a culmination of her decades-long interest in science fiction and continued research into deep space and alien life. Conceived site-specifically for Serpentine, the exhibition will feature almost entirely new work that engages both the gallery’s internal and external space.

For Alienarium 5, Gonzalez-Foerster has collaborated with writer and philosopher Paul B. Preciado, musician Julien Perez and parfumier Barnabé Fillion, among others, to transform Serpentine into a spectacular and otherworldly environment. A new multi-user VR piece produced by VIVE Arts and developed by Lucid Realities contemplates alternative forms of connection through extraterrestrial embodiment, while an immersive 360-degree collage titled Metapanoramauses outer space as a framework to bring humans, non-humans and extraterrestrials together.

Connecting to Serpentine’s historical role as a tea house and a site of rendezvous, Alienarium 5 serves as a meeting point for friends from the past, the present and a time not yet named. Welcoming visitors into a world of expanded possibility the exhibition is, in the artist’s words, “a mutant place contributing to the invention of new technologies of consciousness. It is an anti-War of the Worlds vision”.

Alienarium 5 is a proposal for freedom and interspecies connection. It is an experimental place in which to discover new forms of love and to imagine possible encounters with visitors from outer space.

To keep up to date with events relating to Alienarium 5, please sign up to the Serpentine Newsletter here.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Alienarium 5
Serpentine South Gallery
Serpentine Galleries, Kensington Gardens
London W2 3XA
April 14 – September 4, 2022
www.serpentinegalleries.org