The Spanish and Rotterdam-based artist David Maroto shows in his upcoming exhibition If You Could Predict the Future, Would You Share Your Knowledge? reproductions of different cuneiform clay tablets from the distant past together with drawings and sculptures that engage in foretelling.

A 3D print of an ancient letter (unopened and unread till now) from a son to his mother shows us there’s a lot to relate with people living ca. 1800 BC. We are their hereafter. Maroto examines ways to calm our anxiety about not knowing what the future has in store for us by leafing through the remote past.

Divination is a way of dealing with social or cognitive uncertainty. In times of turmoil and crisis, one leans to know and predict the time to come, try to convince oneself of it, and adjust to what it shows. Maroto shares traditional divinatory know-how, from times when crisis and turmoil seemed to be humanity’s core business as well. Sculptures, drawings, and symbols from ancient Mesopotamia point out which body part can help us to get a grip on what’s coming. It looks like the future is engraved in our bodies, from palm to liver. We just have to learn how to read it.

During the opening, there will be a public session of chiromancy (fortune-telling palm reading) carried out by the artist.

Artists: DAVID MAROTO