Mixed media installation, polystyrene packaging, bottle caps, and wood; five different objects on chipboard, approx. 220 × 140 cm.
The Little Robot
A glance into the distant future: the utopian vision of a world recovering its health has ultimately failed, after far too late and initially ignored cries for help from countless people. The excess and ignorance of those who ruled our world have led to a state in which the Earth has become a world abandoned not only physically, but also spiritually. It is the tragic legacy of humanity, as a result of centuries of environmental destruction and relentless exploitation, a humanity that has ultimately left behind this inhospitable and ecologically devastated Earth.
As the sole witness of time, a small, lonely robot remains, having outlived all other robots, which, over the years, shut down their functions in a kind of technological collective suicide born of meaninglessness. This little robot moves through a harsh, colorless, and nature-hostile world, quietly, tirelessly, and always conscientiously sorting mountains of waste, a final echo of our human civilization. Almost lovingly, the little robot devotes itself to the things we left behind, relics, nearly historical artifacts of a lost civilization, sorted by color and size, independent of their original function, since they will never again exist in a world of functionality and banality.
Thus, the little robot becomes a silent witness, not only because it cleans up, but because it marvels, collects, and loves. Within it is reflected a humanity that has been lost, a capacity for relationship and for responsibility toward our world. Humanity has removed itself from the world of which it was once a part, not driven out by an external catastrophe, but by its own indifference.
Photos: All Ismael Picker-Schiebel