Future Tales of Long Ago (2025)

Future Tales of Long Ago: World-building and Mythology is a speculative art series by Vladimir Kanic that merges ancient Croatian folklore with contemporary ecological thinking. Drawing from oral traditions passed down by his ancestors, Kanic reimagines mythological protectors of nature—figures like Vodan, Svarog, and Lada—within post-carbon futures. Inspired by Anna Tsing’s writings on the matsutake mushroom as a symbol of survival and cultural regeneration, this work situates mythology as an ecological archive. Through fine art prints and digital renderings infused with algal biological memory, Kanic creates hybrid lifeforms that bridge human and non-human worlds, generating narratives of radical hope in the face of planetary crises.

Positioned alongside Afrofuturism and Indigenous Futurism, Future Tales of Long Ago challenges dominant chronopolitics by reclaiming the right to imagine alternate futures on non-Western terms. Using a practice Simon O’Sullivan calls “fictioning,” Kanic resists the erasure and commodification of cultural memory, especially myths that were once censored for their critique of government corruption. These works, combining digital technology and organic materials, occupy a liminal space between reality and imagination. They invite audiences to consider new possibilities for interspecies collaboration, cultural survival, and ecological repair in a time of climate collapse.