Orphic Exuberance vs Solar Capitalism

Leandro Nerefuh: “I think of my work between 2015 and 2025 as a continuous project with work based on texts and research into Brazilian and Latin-American artistic narratives, and the tradition of experimentation and form innovation in Brazilian art history,” says Leandro Nerefuh. “Orphic Exuberance vs Solar Capitalism is a story about the war that has been raging for a long time between solar capitalism and exuberance.”

Qué? “We have long been familiar with fiction about other possible worlds and we write powerful science fiction stories about them. On the other hand, there are structures that impose one world top-down and seek to install one world hegemony. I refer to the latter as ‘solar capitalism’: it is the attempt of capital to become transcendent, which is no longer a question of money and economics, but of satellites, algorithms, and artificial intelligence in a universe of big data. It is a great empire that transcends the earth and attempts to be ever-present. Within the earth through the exploitation of oil and natural resources, above the earth through the commercialization of space travel, the colonization of Mars... The sun is a paradoxical symbol. In one story, it gives all life, while in another it causes cosmic fear about the end of our civilization. Capitalism has now colonized the sun to turn it into a machine, and we are blinded by it to be used as the fuel that runs it. It is a mistake to think that capitalism serves us. It burns us all, and not just us, but the rivers, fish, and plants too.”