Futurefarmers: Out Of Place, In Place

Exhibitions

Futurefarmers: Out Of Place, In Place

April 20—August 12, 2018

Founded in 1995 in San Francisco, the internationally renowned Futurefarmers group takes a collective, playful, inquiry-based approach to art making that spans multiple disciplines and ways of inhabiting the world, from sailing and farming to environmental design and DIY scientific experimentation.

Their imaginative, environmentally-conscious projects provoke audiences to question the many ways that humans try to control nature, or imagine themselves as separate from it. Their work can be described as social sculpture, a type of making that activates art’s potential to change society. Futurefarmers: Out of Place, in Place surveys their practice to date, and includes what they call a new “speculative fog-harvesting machine,” a live project to be constructed and activated over the course of the exhibition. This exhibition is part of YBCA’s ongoing Changing the Ratio initiative. Over 70% of YBCA’s exhibitions from 2017 through 2019 are dedicated to monographic exhibitions of female artists or female-led collaborations.

Futurefarmers, Speculative Machine, 2018. Installation view, Futurefarmers: Out of Place, in Place, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2018. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Futurefarmers, Futurefarmers survey 1994–present, 2018. Installation view, Futurefarmers: Out of Place, in Place, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2018. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Futurefarmers, Erratum, 2010. Installation view, Futurefarmers: Out of Place, in Place, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2018. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photograph by Charlie Villyard.

Futurefarmers: Out of Place, in Place, installation view, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2018. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Futurefarmers, Seed Journey, 2016–ongoing. Installation view, Futurefarmers: Out of Place, in Place, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2018. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Futurefarmers, Shoemaker’s Dialogues, 2011. Installation view, Futurefarmers: Out of Place, in Place, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2018. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Futurefarmers, Soil Kitchen, 2011. Installation view, Futurefarmers: Out of Place, in Place, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2018. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Futurefarmers: Out of Place, in Place, installation view, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2018. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

About Futurefarmers

Futurefarmers is a group of diverse practitioners aligned through an interest in making work that is relevant to the time and place surrounding us. Founded in 1995, the design studio serves as a platform to support art projects, an artist in residence program, and our research interests. We are artists, researchers, designers, architects, scientists, and farmers with a common interest in creating frameworks for exchange that catalyze moments of “not knowing.”

Brochure for Future Farmers

Futurefarmers and Lucía Sanromán in conversation…

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Futurefarmers: Out of Place, in Place is organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and curated by Lucía Sanromán, Director of Visual Arts.

Futurefarmers: Out of Place, in Place is made possible, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Support is provided by the Changing the Ratio Circle of Advisors: Abundance Foundation, Berit Ashla, Diana Cohn, EMIKA Fund, Jennifer C. Haas Fund, Rekha Patel, Catalina Ruiz-Healy and Jonathan Kevles, Vicki Shipkowitz, and Meg Spriggs. Additional thanks to the Selvage Fund of the East Bay Community Foundation and the Facebook Artist in Residence Program.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is grateful to the City of San Francisco for its ongoing support.

YBCA Programs are made possible in part by: The James Irvine Foundation, with additional funding by National Endowment for the Arts, Grosvenor, and Members of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

YBCA Exhibitions are made possible in part by: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Panta Rhea Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies Public Fellows Program, and Meridee Moore and Kevin King.

Lead Image: Futurefarmers: Out of Place, in Place, installation view, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2018. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Bio Image: Futurefarmers, This is Not a Trojan Horse, 2010. Photograph by Daniella D’Arielli. Courtesy Futurefarmers.