Ecology of Attention is a curatorial project of Montag Modus that consists of four performance exhibitions and a digital publication.

Montag Modus is an interdisciplinary series organized by the MMpraxis curatorial platform. The series centers around performance art, choreography, and time-based media, are presented in a form of a group exhibition. Each year Montag Modus has a thematic focus which unfolds across multiple performance exhibitions, each of which consists of four to five new works and offers a one-week on-site residency to the artists prior to the event and/or publication itself.

The Ecology of Attention project was initiated by Montag Modus’ artistic director Léna Szirmay-Kalos, who has invited curators, cultural practitioners, and artists to co-curate the performance exhibitions and the publication with her in a collaborative manner. It has provided space to different practices of attention by unfolding through time and space, proposing and realizing multiple forms of access and participation.

Inspired by Yves Citton's Ecology of Attention book, four performance exhibitions addressed the notion of attention in the digital age by looking at it not only as an individual act of selecting objects from environments, or as a premium commodity, but also as something that is collectively organized and valued. The performance-exhibitions were organized in Berlin and online between August 2020 and March 2021 and presented 19 artistic contributions in collaboration with Berlin-based, as well as artists, curators, and theater-makers from the regions of Central and Eastern Europe.The digital publication, co-edited by Léna Szirmay-Kalos and Maru Mushtrieva, documents the works and includes five new pieces commissioned specifically for the publication.

The majority of the works presented during Ecology of Attention arise from discussions with artists and their experiences. The series placed a special focus on works that are still in the process of development, which provided a further contribution to the overall theme of the research project.

Ecology of Attention #1: FOMO was co-curated with Yvonne Zindel and featured works by Janne Nora Kummer & Anton Krause, Sunny Pfalzer, Cia Rinne, and Lauryn Youden.

Ecology of Attention #2: Ignition Cycle was co-curated with Alexander Wilmschen and presented work by Nicholas Grafia & Mikołaj Sobczak, Constantin Hartenstein, Nguyễn + Transitory, and Ania Nowak & Angela Alves.

Ecology of Attention #3: Listening Out Loud was co-curated with choreographer Jasna Layes Vinovrški in collaboration with with Petr Dlouhy & Anna Chrtková and presented work online by Christina Ciupke & Darko Dragičević, Trigger Collective, Julian Weber, and Siegmar Zacharias & Steve Heather.

Ecology of Attention #4: stand out of our light featured works online by Lois Alexander, Julia Bell, Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm, Hollow & Omsk Social Club, and Melanie Jame Wolf, along with a roundtable discussion held in collaboration with Work It Out & DUST Collective.

The project was funded by the Berlin Senate for Culture and Europe, the Czech-German Future Fund, and the Coproduction Fund of the Goethe-Institut, and received additional support from Alte Münze (Berlin), Collegium Hungaricum Berlin (CHB), and Divadlo X10 (Prague).