Titled Will The World Ever the Salon on Sustainability #2 (organised by Marjolein van der Meer, Air Berlin Alexanderplatz) welcomed fantastical scenarios, comments and critical imaginations of present and future worlds. Concerned with questions of mutation and transformation on the intersections of sustainability, science fiction and technology, the salon proposed posthuman perspectives and explored potentials of speculative (auto)fiction. The event presented works by visual artists Anan Fries and Anne Duk Hee Jordan, followed by a joint conversation led by Zippora Elders, head of the curatorial department at Gropius Bau.

Anan Fries works at the intersection of digital and performing arts. They are co-founder and former artistic director of game-theatre collective machina eX, which designs immersive gamified experiences. Anan Fries also co-founded Henrike Iglesias, an experimental feminist performance collective with a strong love for pop and politics. They are currently researching hybrid aesthetics of virtual and physical worldbuilding. In collaboration with sound artist and composer Malu Peeters they made VIRTUAL WOMBS, a speculative essay which combines VR and live performance, and [POSTHUMAN WOMBS], a hybrid of VR-experience and spatial sound installation.

Transience and transformation are the central themes in the work of Anne Duk Hee Jordan. Through movement and performance, Jordan gives materiality another dimension – she builds motorized sculptures and creates edible landscapes. Her sculptures are intended to draw the viewer into the present and open a dialogue between natural phenomena, philosophy and art. Her work is like an interactive fantasy play with the knowledge and theories about the world and our souls. In the absence of concrete knowledge, fantasy runs riot. Jordan opens up doors to a universe where she humorously and romantically creates machines that juxtapose robotic consciousness with organic cyclic decay and life. She asks questions about an »agency« and encourages a change of perspective. She shifts the focus away from humans towards the entire ecology (Text by Pauline Doutreluingne).

The Salons on Sustainability were conceived by Air Berlin Alexanderplatz in cooperation with the Swiss Embassy in Berlin. The series consist of four Salons: #1 World Building, #2 Science Fiction (at soft power), #3 Mending Practices, #4 Sustainable Photography.