The Great Filter

• Date:
• Location: NGO DEI

Artist: ​Peter Mammes

Dates: 9–31 May 2026

The Great Filter

Artist Peter Mammes presents The Great Filter, a solo exhibition opening on 9 May 2026 at NGO DEI in The Hague. The exhibition takes its title from the scientific idea that intelligent civilizations may reach a critical threshold they fail to survive. Mammes uses this concept as a lens through which to consider humanity’s position at a time of accelerating technological power, ecological instability, and renewed global conflict. Through intricate figurative compositions structured through rhythm, symmetry, and repeating forms, Mammes constructs layered visual worlds where children, animals, machines, and natural systems interact in fragile equilibrium. The works function like visual compositions: patterns build rhythm and harmony while revealing the delicate systems that sustain life and the pressures placed upon them. Presented in The Hague, a city closely associated with diplomacy, international law, and the prevention of conflict, the exhibition resonates with urgent contemporary questions about survival, responsibility, and the forces humanity has set in motion. Rather than offering answers, The Great Filter invites viewers to reflect on whether our species can navigate the thresholds it has created.

“The Great Filter is the idea that most intelligent civilizations destroy themselves before they can spread into the universe. I’m interested in the possibility that humanity may be approaching that moment — and what that means for the fragile systems that sustain life.”— Peter Mammes

About the Artist 

Peter Mammes is a London-based artist whose figurative works bring together pattern, technology, ecology, and human vulnerability. His practice creates visual harmonies in which rhythm, symmetry, and image structure become a way of thinking through the future of civilization.

Exhibition

9 May, 3pm - 7pm ( Opening Reception, free entry )

9–31 May 2026

NGO DEI, Westeinde 25, The Hague

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