»Solastalgia« is a neologism originating from consolation (solacium, solace) and -algia (pain, sorrow, grief) with echoes of the word »nostalgia«. According to Glenn Albrecht, solastalgia is »...a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at home.« The word describes the melancholic feeling of people whose environment changes so much due to global warming, that it is hardly recognizable as home.
In the installation Solostalgia, by THE AGENCY, visitors encounter a desert-like landscape of calcium carbonate, which provides fertile ground for associations of a post-apocalyptic earth or a lunar landscape. Here, one can hear how the stone, the sun, the fog and yet unknown fossils tell the stories of the demise of humankind.
When The Agency activates the installation, Solastalgia turns into a game: »Welcome to the end of your world«. A simulation in which three avatars act out the farewell to the world as we humans know it - and imagine a world after human beings. Game supervisor »Nature» guides them through various levels, from resistance to acceptance, always ranging between the hope of still being able to do something and the temptation to indulge in a cheerfully nihilistic »Let's enjoy our endings together«. Searching for insights, exit strategies and comforting narratives, the three avatars finally face the metamorphosis. The audience is invited to observe.
The work was funded by the federal city of Munich and Kunststiftung Bayern.