A Score for the Present - Agnes Denes X Circa

A Score for the Present is a visual response to artist Agnes Denes’ project Another Confrontation, questionnaire for the future. The work was presented in collaboration with Agnes Denes, CIRCA, & MA Art & Ecology programme department at Goldsmiths.

How can we stop correcting in hindsight?

A Score for the Present: focus on how plants live in the present and move with/like them.

To be aware of the present, to truly take it in, and to act accordingly will render hindsight obsolete. It is when we focus on the future, blind to the present, or, looking back, a tantrum against time, do we trip. There are plenty of good reasons for both of those perspectives, yet only one good reason for the present.

Agnes Denes’ Wheatfield: A Confrontation (1982) is a sober and beautiful look at the present, the priorities, the perspectives of our contemporary context, a gesture in concert with life, plants swaying in the breeze.”

In this project, Agnes Denes broadcasted 11 ecological and existential questions across CIRCA's network of screens, exchanging bread for responses from the public. The questionnaire answers will be buried in a time capsule beneath Piccadilly Circus to be opened in 3022.