Wrinkles and creases, hairs and goosebumps. Toenails and hands that look so real that they remind you of your own. Bone structures and skin tones that resemble yours. And yet, despite all the recognition you feel estranged from what you’re witnessing in Echo’s main hall in the exhibition Arcadian Dreams: Creatures from a World Reborn. As if all the elements of our current world fell apart en were put together in another way, under other circumstances and in a slightly daunting manner.

Mix posthumanism with hyperrealism and add hints of a world we used to know, and you get a dystopian collection of creatures that seem to be lost in our world, while at the same time look completely at ease in this environment. It makes you wonder whether you’re a visitor of a surreal, fantastical world, or a spectator of a future so real that you want to reach out and touch it.

Because to touch is what you want with artist Margriet van Breevoort’s works. Margriet van Breevoort (1990) is a contemporary Dutch sculptor known for her whimsical and surreal works, which often blur the boundaries between reality and imagination. Her work explores themes of empathy, patience, and the human condition, using fantastical creatures to evoke emotional responses. Van Breevoort’s sculptures are characterized by their attention to detail, playful nature, and ability to resonate with audiences across cultures.

Her works leave you in a state of doubt. Did we, humans, do this? And: we are so unnecessary. We could be wiped off the face of the Earth and these creatures certainly wouldn’t care. It makes you wonder what the world, outside of us, thinks and feels. What would their stories be if you take us out of the equation?

Posthumanism is the philosophical thought where animals, plants, and objects have rights. Humans are merely part of a greater network in which all things are essentially equal. This requires looking at the world in an entirely different way. Because looking at the world from this perspective, the North Sea has thoughts too about the ships that pass through her waters, and the land has knowledge about everything living, walking or dying in it.

It might be a stretch to try and imagine that the North Sea speaks, or to wrap your mind around organizations that save a spot at the management table for non-human life. But the latter has been put into practice by Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, that turned itself into a zoöp. And there are many peoples who have these ideas at the core of their knowledge systems, like the Maori.

And come to think of it, humanity only exists for a blink of an eye in the greater scheme of time. There might just be forms of knowledge, voices other than those able to express themselves through words, that have been around for much longer and found ways to do their own storytelling. As surreal as this may feel, look at the creatures at Echo and you can feel the line between surrealism and realism wearing thin. Don’t we recognize ourselves in them?

So what do you do, as human, as social and empathic creature? You look, imagine, and try to connect. And art would lose its great feature if it didn’t make you – creative and fantastical creature that you are – want to express yourself and start creating. Because through art we are human, and at the same time it allows us to imagine ourselves being non-human. And through art we can connect worlds, whether they’re in the past or future, real, surreal or hyperreal.

Thus we create, together with you. We invite you to join us for our upcoming writing workshop Posthuman Personas, where we will meet and become the creatures from a world reborn. They’ll be waiting for us. Will you join us for this journey?

Sanne Helbers, programme maker Studium Generale