Connecting

06.10―
03.12.2023

KANAL-Centre Pompidou

Exhibition opening days and times:

Thursday 11:00−21:00
Friday 11:00−19:00
Saturday 11:00−19:00
Sunday 11:00−19:00

Avenue du port 1, 1000 Bruxelles

This exhibition takes place at K1. The toilets and the first floor are only accessible by stairs. We are deeply sorry for this inconvenience.

INFO
TICKETS

EXHIBITION

Technology is omnipresent in our daily lives, but what do our online relationships actually represent? How do we inhabit a community through an app? What does it mean to be friends through platforms and avatars? And is there room for love in the metaverse? Connecting traces the links between physical reality and the digital world.

Until recently, digital tools were nothing more than translations of physical applications: mail became e-mail, shopping increasingly happened online, banks funneled people to their apps. Then Web 2.0 and social media gradually changed the spaces where we interact. However the transformation did not end there and the boundaries between digital and physical worlds continued to blur. Today we converse on ChatGPT, draw up contracts via blockchain technology, and play games in boundless virtual universes. 

The digital world keeps building where the physical world ends. Living and non-living entities become interconnected, much like in animistic belief systems and cosmologies where non-human forms like rivers, mountains, animals, and stones have long been revered for their vitality and potential. Emotion, intimacy, and attention are no longer inherently human qualities. This obscuration of what it means to be alive generates a form of worldbuilding that surpasses human limitations. 

Connecting imagines new interdependencies between humans and non-humans. These connections expand and reshape our understanding of affection, kinship, and relationships. In investigating this new texture of experience, artists in the exhibition reflect on the transformative quality of technology in shaping our emotional worlds.

EXHIBITION

Technology is omnipresent in our daily lives, but what do our online relationships actually represent? How do we inhabit a community through an app? What does it mean to be friends through platforms and avatars? And is there room for love in the metaverse? Connecting traces the links between physical reality and the digital world.

Until recently, digital tools were nothing more than translations of physical applications: mail became e-mail, shopping increasingly happened online, banks funneled people to their apps. Then Web 2.0 and social media gradually changed the spaces where we interact. However the transformation did not end there and the boundaries between digital and physical worlds continued to blur. Today we converse on ChatGPT, draw up contracts via blockchain technology, and play games in boundless virtual universes.

The digital world keeps building where the physical world ends. Living and non-living entities become interconnected, much like in animistic belief systems and cosmologies where non-human forms like rivers, mountains, animals, and stones have long been revered for their vitality and potential. Emotion, intimacy, and attention are no longer inherently human qualities. This obscuration of what it means to be alive generates a form of worldbuilding that surpasses human limitations.

Connecting imagines new interdependencies between humans and non-humans. These connections expand and reshape our understanding of affection, kinship, and relationships. In investigating this new texture of experience, artists in the exhibition reflect on the transformative quality of technology in shaping our emotional worlds.

ARTISTS

Artists

Zach Blasnumber-circle-one.256x256.png

Eva L’hoest number-circle-two.256x256.png

Ian Chengnumber-circle-three.256x256.png

Tabita Rezaire number-circle-four.256x256.png

Korakrit Arunanondchai and

Alex gvojic

Keiken

Natasha Tontey

Zach Blas number-circle-one.256x256.png
Eva L’hoest number-circle-two.256x256.png
Ian Cheng number-circle-three.256x256.png
Tabita Rezaire number-circle-four.256x256.png
Korakrit Arunanondchai and Alex gvojic
Keiken
Natasha Tontey

Zach Blas

Profundior (Lachryphagic Transmutation Deus-Motus-Data Network)
2022
Two-channel video, six videos, two video projections, color, sound, metal, water
Looped

Zach Blas is an artist, filmmaker, and writer based in Toronto whose practice spans moving image, computation, theory, performance, and science fiction, while exploring topics such as technology, queerness, and politics. Blas’ work has been exhibited at the Berlin Biennial, the Gwangju Biennial, the Warszawa Biennale, Art in General in New York, Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, MAXXI in Rome, MOCA Chicago, MAAT in Lisbon, and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Blas is Assistant Professor of Visual Studies at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. His publication Unknown Ideals is published by Sternberg Press and Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst.

Commissioned by Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art / Producer: Lili-Maxx Hager / Architect and Designer: Scott Kepford / Computer Graphics: Harry Sanderson / Machine Learning Engineers (video and text):  Ashwin D’Cruz and Christopher Tegho / Graphic Design: Studio Pandan / Video Editor: Marine Renaudineau / Audio: xin / Additional Audio Engineering: Aya Sinclair / Sound Editor: Tom Sedgwick / Sound Design: Ben Hurd / Metal Fabrication: Bernd Euler / Acrylic Fabrication: Uwe Schwarzer - mixedmedia berlin / Research and Production Assistant: Audrey Ammann / Documentation Videography and Editing: Martin Gajc / Supported by Canada Council for the Arts and UP Projects / Special Thanks: Kader Attia, Ana Teixeira Pinto, Melody Jue, Pinar Yoldas, Marcela Coto, and Jasmina Tumbas

Eva L'Hoest

What Hath God Wrought? (video sculpture)
2023
Two-channel video, color, silent
Looped

Eva L’Hoest is a multimedia artist based in Brussels. She uses digital language to decode the role of emotions, affect, language, and memories. Recently, her work has been exhibited in major events such as the Biennale of Sydney in 2022, the 2020 Riga International Biennial Of Contemporary Art, the Okayama Art Summit and the Lyon Biennale, both in 2019. Her work has been shown in exhibitions at WIELS in Brussels, Malmö Museum in Sweden, Le Botanique in Brussels, IKOB in Eupen, Casino Luxembourg, La Boverie in Liège, and at Air Antwerp. She is currently an artist in residence at International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York. 

Ian Cheng

Emissary in the Squat of Gods
2015
Live digital simulation, color, sound
Infinite duration

Ian Cheng is a digital artist based in New York. He is known for his live simulations and his use of game engines to generate virtual landscapes populated with characters whose behaviour self-evolves. Recent solo exhibitions include LAS in Berlin, The Shed in New York, LUMA Westbau in Zurich, Serpentine Galleries in London, MoMA PS1 in New York, and Migros Museum in Zurich. His work has been exhibited in group shows at Centre Pompidou-Metz, MOCA in Los Angeles, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Venice Biennale, MoMA in New York, the Sharjah Biennial, MAXXI in Rome, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.

Courtesy of the artist, Gladstone Gallery, Pilar Corrias, London and Standard (Oslo). 

Tabita Rezaire

ULTRA WET - RECAPITULATION
2017-2018
Video projection mapping on wooden pyramid, color, sound
12 min 30 sec

Tabita Rezaire is a new media artist based in Cayenne in French Guyana. Her practice explores the intersections of technology and spirituality. She works as an artist, farmer, yoga teacher, and a doula. Embracing these practices of healing nourish connection and emancipation in her artistic process. Her work has been shown at Centraal Museum in Utrecht, Gropius Bau in Berlin, the Busan Biennale, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Helsinki Biennial, MASP in Sao Paulo, and at MMOMA for the 6th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art. Her performances have taken place at Centre Pompidou in Paris, Serpentine Galleries in London, the Guangzhou Biennale, and MoMA in New York.

Courtesy of the artist and Goodman Gallery. 

Korakrit Arunanondchai & Alex Gvojic

Songs for Living
2021
Video, color, sound
20 min 53 sec

Korakrit Arunanondchai works with video, installation, performance, sculpture and painting, and is based in Bangkok and New York. For Connecting, he has collaborated with Alex Gvojic, a New York-based Art Director, artist, and cinematographer, working across art, music, and fashion. In his work, Arunanondchai explores religious and animist traditions, pop cultural motifs, technology, authenticity, and political struggles. Arunanondchai’s recent solo exhibitions include Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich, Serralves Museum in Porto, Secession in Vienna, Kiasma in Helsinki, and S.M.A.K in Ghent. His work was part of group exhibitions at Lafayette Anticipations in Paris, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney, Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, X Museum in Beijing, Kunstenfestivaldesarts in, Brussels, the Gwangju Biennale Para Site in Hong Kong, the Singapore Biennial, the Istanbul Biennial, the Whitney Biennial, and the Venice Biennale. Gvojic has been exhibited at Migros Museum in Zurich, Museu Serralves in Porto, the Venice Biennale, the Athens Biennale, Singapore Art Museum, Performa in New York, and the Berlin Biennale.

 

Courtesy of the artists, C L E A R I N G New York/ Brussels, Carlos Ishikawa London, Bangkok CityCity Gallery, Bangkok, Kukje Gallery Seoul/Busan

Commissioned by Migros Museum & Kunstverein in Hamburg with support from FACT Liverpool

Installation: Soft Room (2021), design by flore fockedey & Sébastien Roy

Keiken

Morphogenic Angels
2023
Video game, color, sound, Hi-shine flooring, PVC seats

Keiken is an artist collective co-founded in 2015 by Tanya Cruz, Hana Omori and Isabel Ramos, based between London and Berlin. Keiken (the Japanese word for ‘experience,’ which is at the centre of their practice) are collaboratively building and imagining speculative futures, to test-drive new structures and ways of existing. They do this through filmmaking, gaming, installation, Extended Reality (XR), blockchain, and performance.

“Morphogenic Angels” is Keiken’s current ongoing and ever-evolving project, unfolding in a radically different time and space that transcends our current political, societal, financial and subjective reality.

Keiken are a winner of the inaugural Chanel Next Prize and are residents at Somerset House, London. Recent selected exhibitions include: Helsinki Biennial (FL), HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin (DE) (2023), CO Berlin (DE); Wellcome Collection, London (UK); ARKO Art Centre, Seoul (KR); Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf (DE); Onassis, Athens (GR); Photographers Gallery, London (UK) (2022); 2nd Thailand Biennale, Korat (TH); House of Electronic Arts HEK, Basel (CH); Francisco Carolinum, Linz (AU); 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice (IT); Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo (JP) (2021); FACT, Liverpool (UK); Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt (DE); transmediale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt HKW, Berlin (DE) (2020); Institute of Contemporary Arts ICA, London (UK); Jerwood Arts, London (UK) (2019).

Creative direction: Tanya Cruz, Hana Omori and Isabel Ramos (Keiken) / Programming, Game Design and Technical Direction: Limbo Tech / Visual Effects, Art Direction & Game Design: Mati Bratkowski / Animation/VFX: Carlos Minozzi  / Music and Sound Design: wavesovspace / Environment Creation, Concept & Design: 00 Zhang / Motion Capture Movement: Sophie Mars / Voice Actor - Yaxu: Tanya Cruz / Voice Actor - Anamt’u’ul: Claire O’Leary / Voice Actor - Yaxu Ancestor 1: Helen Cruz  / Voice Actor - Yaxu Ancestor 2: Chema Cruz / Voice Actor - Narrator: Elvera Avery / Additional Visual Effects: Clifford Sage / 360 VR and CGI Video Visuals: George Jasper Stone / Studio Management: Hekátē Studios (Dominic Lauren, Vaso Papadopoulou, Aristea Rellou) / Technical Production: James Stringer / Project Production: Alexander Boyes

Chapter 1 of Morphogenic Angels was commissioned by HAU Hebbel Am Ufer.

Prototype support thanks to C/O Berlin. 

With thanks to Somerset House Studios, DCMS and Arts Council England.

Natasha Tontey

Wa'anak Witu Watu / Beranak Dalam Batu
2021
Video, color, sound
24 min 35 sec

Natasha Tontey is an artist based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, whose practice predominantly explores fictional accounts of history and possibilities of other futures, often from the perspective of outcasted entities and beings. Recent solo exhibitions include Garden Amidst the Flame at Auto Italia in London, Pest to Power at K4 in Oslo, Norway, and ALMANAK at Cemeti in Yogyakarta. Her work has featured in the 2022 Singapore Biennale, as well as in group exhibitions at Shedhalle in Zurich, Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, and Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, amongst others. Tontey’s performances have taken place at Performance Space Sydney, and Cemeti, Yogyakarta, amongst others. She holds the 2021-2023 Human Machine Fellowship at the Junge Akademie at Akademie der Künste Berlin.

Courtesy of the artist, co-produced by transmediale 2021 (Berlin) and Other Futures Festival (Amsterdam) / Animation Studio: DDDBandidos (Bandung, Indonesia) Music and Sound Design: Divisi 62 (Jakarta, Indonesia), and Mastering at Studio Oposisi (Jakarta, Indonesia). 

Korakrit Arunanondchai & Alex Gvojic

Profundior (Lachryphagic Transmutation Deus-Motus-Data Network)
2022
Two-channel video, six videos, two video projections, color, sound, metal, water
Looped

This immersive moving image installation responds to longstanding entanglements of spirituality and technology in Silicon Valley, identifying religious dynamics within the tech industry’s drive to capture and calculate emotions. In the form of a holy black-boxed network system powered by crying, the artist presents an imagined Artificial Intelligence deity named Lacrimae that consumes human emotions by drinking their tears. In a never-ending ritual cycle, Lacrimae extracts emotional tears from weeping human simulations into a churning pool and transmutates this liquid into data, including text, images, and sound, as the god strives to create a perfected computational language of emotional expression. The installation reimagines the act of religious weeping as a new kind of digital body horror, suggesting that tears symbolise, through their very externalisation of emotion, the myriad forms of emotional extraction necessary for AI, as a technology and industry, to ascend as an entity seemingly imbued with godly power.

 

Zach Blas is an artist, filmmaker, and writer based in Toronto whose practice spans moving image, computation, theory, performance, and science fiction, while exploring topics such as technology, queerness, and politics. Blas’ work has been exhibited at the Berlin Biennial, the Gwangju Biennial, the Warszawa Biennale, Art in General in New York, Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, MAXXI in Rome, MOCA Chicago, MAAT in Lisbon, and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Blas is Assistant Professor of Visual Studies at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. His publication Unknown Ideals is published by Sternberg Press and Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst.

Commissioned by Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art / Producer: Lili-Maxx Hager / Architect and Designer: Scott Kepford / Computer Graphics: Harry Sanderson / Machine Learning Engineers (video and text):  Ashwin D’Cruz and Christopher Tegho / Graphic Design: Studio Pandan / Video Editor: Marine Renaudineau / Audio: xin / Additional Audio Engineering: Aya Sinclair / Sound Editor: Tom Sedgwick / Sound Design: Ben Hurd / Metal Fabrication: Bernd Euler / Acrylic Fabrication: Uwe Schwarzer - mixedmedia berlin / Research and Production Assistant: Audrey Ammann / Documentation Videography and Editing: Martin Gajc / Supported by Canada Council for the Arts and UP Projects / Special Thanks: Kader Attia, Ana Teixeira Pinto, Melody Jue, Pinar Yoldas, Marcela Coto, and Jasmina Tumbas

Eva L'Hoest

What Hath God Wrought? (video sculpture)
2023
Two-channel video, color, silent
Looped

In tandem with her online film, this multi-screen video-sculpture is a Computer Generated Image (CGI) of a metaphorical braid reminiscent of Rapunzel's fairy tale. The Rapunzel metaphor tells of protection from the evils of the world versus the inclination for -quite literally- reaching out. Rapunzel's captive existence in the tower, echoes the isolated nature of undersea cable networks, while the braid links her to the outer world. The hair in the braid alludes to early cable technology, with each strand of the braid subtly alluding to early cables — their copper material, their twists, and their role as communication pathways. The interplay between history and technology becomes an undercurrent as one ascends the stairs. The title What Hath God Wrought? means ‘What has God  Done?’, and, in 1844, Samuel Morse sent it as the first ever telegram. 

Eva L’Hoest is a multimedia artist based in Brussels. She uses digital language to decode the role of emotions, affect, language, and memories. Recently, her work has been exhibited in major events such as the Biennale of Sydney in 2022, the 2020 Riga International Biennial Of Contemporary Art, the Okayama Art Summit and the Lyon Biennale, both in 2019. Her work has been shown in exhibitions at WIELS in Brussels, Malmö Museum in Sweden, Le Botanique in Brussels, IKOB in Eupen, Casino Luxembourg, La Boverie in Liège, and at Air Antwerp. She is currently an artist in residence at International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York. 

Ian Cheng

Emissary in the Squat of Gods
2015
Live digital simulation, color, sound
Infinite duration

Emissary in the Squat of Gods tells the story of an ancient community living with the threat of a volcanic eruption. The central character, a child called an emissary, is an AI-driven entity that experiences consciousness, and who learns and adapts its behaviour over time.

This piece is part of the Emissaries trilogy, in which Ian Cheng used a game-engine to generate an infinite live-simulation, where characters behave both randomly and following a script in a never-ending, always transforming environment. Cheng’s work explores mutation, the history of human consciousness and our capacity as a species to relate to change. Through three interconnected episodes, the artist questions cognitive evolution: the transformation of psychological traits and the mechanism of a particular species’ change over time. In particular, he focuses on the influence of ecological conditions in the evolution of organisms by creating a series of creatures that have to adapt to a changing environment. In this case, the artwork introduces us to a non-human ecology, where inhabitants interact with an artificial wilderness, uncontrolled by human-like premises, guided by a pre-scripted yet evolving non-human agency.

Ian Cheng is a digital artist based in New York. He is known for his live simulations and his use of game engines to generate virtual landscapes populated with characters whose behaviour self-evolves. Recent solo exhibitions include LAS in Berlin, The Shed in New York, LUMA Westbau in Zurich, Serpentine Galleries in London, MoMA PS1 in New York, and Migros Museum in Zurich. His work has been exhibited in group shows at Centre Pompidou-Metz, MOCA in Los Angeles, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Venice Biennale, MoMA in New York, the Sharjah Biennial, MAXXI in Rome, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.

Courtesy of the artist, Gladstone Gallery, Pilar Corrias, London and Standard (Oslo). 

Tabita Rezaire

ULTRA WET - RECAPITULATION
2017-2018
Video projection mapping on wooden pyramid, color, sound
12 min 30 sec

Through radiant textures and floating flowers, serpents, and galaxies Tabita Rezaire composes a symbolic journey into the wisdom and indigenous traditions of pre-colonial Africa. In ULTRA WET – RECAPITULATION, the artist calls for action to bridge the gap between masculine and feminine energies in order to achieve a more balanced world. Through animated imagery and video collages, she seeks to remind us of pre-colonial African societies and ancient indigenous ways of life: free from preset, clear-cut binary structures and gender norms enforced in Western culture. Enhanced by the sacred form of the pyramid, her work celebrates erotism and liberation, setting out to provide a pathway to move away from the oppressive binaries and patriarchal structures that dominate contemporary societies. 

Tabita Rezaire is a new media artist based in Cayenne in French Guyana. Her practice explores the intersections of technology and spirituality. She works as an artist, farmer, yoga teacher, and a doula. Embracing these practices of healing nourish connection and emancipation in her artistic process. Her work has been shown at Centraal Museum in Utrecht, Gropius Bau in Berlin, the Busan Biennale, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Helsinki Biennial, MASP in Sao Paulo, and at MMOMA for the 6th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art. Her performances have taken place at Centre Pompidou in Paris, Serpentine Galleries in London, the Guangzhou Biennale, and MoMA in New York.

Courtesy of the artist and Goodman Gallery. 

Korakrit Arunanondchai & Alex Gvojic

Songs for Living
2021
Video, color, sound
20 min 53 sec

What happens to a person’s spirit after death? In Songs for Living, Korakrit Arunanondchai and Alex Gvojic imagine a mystical place where enigmatic beings gather to perform collective rituals. Freed from the burdens of the human condition, the creatures find a new access to nature, intimacy, and collectivity. Guided by the voice of the god-like narrator, the spirits attempt to find their way back to the world of the living, connect with their ancestors, and be reborn. Throughout this transformative journey, both the elements of fire and water play an important role: the former, representing the cremation of the body, the latter a source of life.

Korakrit Arunanondchai works with video, installation, performance, sculpture and painting, and is based in Bangkok and New York. For Connecting, he has collaborated with Alex Gvojic, a New York-based Art Director, artist, and cinematographer, working across art, music, and fashion. In his work, Arunanondchai explores religious and animist traditions, pop cultural motifs, technology, authenticity, and political struggles. Arunanondchai’s recent solo exhibitions include Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich, Serralves Museum in Porto, Secession in Vienna, Kiasma in Helsinki, and S.M.A.K in Ghent. His work was part of group exhibitions at Lafayette Anticipations in Paris, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney, Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, X Museum in Beijing, Kunstenfestivaldesarts in, Brussels, the Gwangju Biennale Para Site in Hong Kong, the Singapore Biennial, the Istanbul Biennial, the Whitney Biennial, and the Venice Biennale. Gvojic has been exhibited at Migros Museum in Zurich, Museu Serralves in Porto, the Venice Biennale, the Athens Biennale, Singapore Art Museum, Performa in New York, and the Berlin Biennale.

Courtesy of the artists, C L E A R I N G New York/ Brussels, Carlos Ishikawa London, Bangkok CityCity Gallery, Bangkok, Kukje Gallery Seoul/Busan

Commissioned by Migros Museum & Kunstverein in Hamburg with support from FACT Liverpool

Installation: Soft Room (2021), design by flore fockedey & Sébastien Roy

Keiken

Morphogenic Angels
2023
Video game, color, sound, Hi-shine flooring, PVC seats

Three whispering voices accompany a character painstakingly running across a mountain range. Confused, this being tries to understand where to go and how they got to this inhospitable place. All of a sudden the protagonist, Yaxu, encounters another sexless creature, Anamt'u'úl. They fall in love after what seems to have been a debilitating evolution.

Morphogenic Angels (2023) is a worldbuilding project that imagines what life could be like 1000 years from now. In the future depicted by Keiken, humans can upgrade themselves through technologies. Called morphogenesis, the process allows their bodies to be organically re-engineered. This controller game generates an immersive experience that examines the potential of creating new forms of consciousness through artificial intelligence (AI). The process of morphogenesis enables the characters to develop not only human but also animal, plant, or inter-species consciousness. In spite of their differences, the two characters strive to evolve and remain together as their metaverse unfolds ahead of them. In this way, the game explores the issue of what love (and suffering) will mean in a future context of interspecies connection.

Keiken is an artist collective co-founded in 2015 by Tanya Cruz, Hana Omori and Isabel Ramos, based between London and Berlin. Keiken (the Japanese word for ‘experience,’ which is at the centre of their practice) are collaboratively building and imagining speculative futures, to test-drive new structures and ways of existing. They do this through filmmaking, gaming, installation, Extended Reality (XR), blockchain, and performance.

“Morphogenic Angels” is Keiken’s current ongoing and ever-evolving project, unfolding in a radically different time and space that transcends our current political, societal, financial and subjective reality.

Keiken are a winner of the inaugural Chanel Next Prize and are residents at Somerset House, London. Recent selected exhibitions include: Helsinki Biennial (FL), HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin (DE) (2023), CO Berlin (DE); Wellcome Collection, London (UK); ARKO Art Centre, Seoul (KR); Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf (DE); Onassis, Athens (GR); Photographers Gallery, London (UK) (2022); 2nd Thailand Biennale, Korat (TH); House of Electronic Arts HEK, Basel (CH); Francisco Carolinum, Linz (AU); 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice (IT); Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo (JP) (2021); FACT, Liverpool (UK); Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt (DE); transmediale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt HKW, Berlin (DE) (2020); Institute of Contemporary Arts ICA, London (UK); Jerwood Arts, London (UK) (2019).

Creative direction: Tanya Cruz, Hana Omori and Isabel Ramos (Keiken) / Programming, Game Design and Technical Direction: Limbo Tech / Visual Effects, Art Direction & Game Design: Mati Bratkowski / Animation/VFX: Carlos Minozzi  / Music and Sound Design: wavesovspace / Environment Creation, Concept & Design: 00 Zhang / Motion Capture Movement: Sophie Mars / Voice Actor - Yaxu: Tanya Cruz / Voice Actor - Anamt’u’ul: Claire O’Leary / Voice Actor - Yaxu Ancestor 1: Helen Cruz  / Voice Actor - Yaxu Ancestor 2: Chema Cruz / Voice Actor - Narrator: Elvera Avery / Additional Visual Effects: Clifford Sage / 360 VR and CGI Video Visuals: George Jasper Stone / Studio Management: Hekátē Studios (Dominic Lauren, Vaso Papadopoulou, Aristea Rellou) / Technical Production: James Stringer / Project Production: Alexander Boyes

Chapter 1 of Morphogenic Angels was commissioned by HAU Hebbel Am Ufer.

Prototype support thanks to C/O Berlin. 

With thanks to Somerset House Studios, DCMS and Arts Council England.

Natasha Tontey

Wa'anak Witu Watu / Beranak Dalam Batu
2021
Video, color, sound
24 min 35 sec

The title of the video, set on the Indonesian island Sulawesi, translates from Tolour (a language spoken in the northeast of Sulawesi), to 'Birth in the Stone'. According to the local Minahasa peoples’ beliefs, stones are a source of knowledge. It is through them that the first person (a woman) was born. Indigenous myths and spiritual practices—valuing the animate and inanimate—stood in stark contrast with modernity and capitalist values imposed by Dutch colonists present on the island from the late 17th century. Exploring the Minhasan traditions through digital culture, the film envisions a society based on principles of reciprocity beyond anthropocentrism.

Natasha Tontey is an artist based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, whose practice predominantly explores fictional accounts of history and possibilities of other futures, often from the perspective of outcasted entities and beings. Recent solo exhibitions include Garden Amidst the Flame at Auto Italia in London, Pest to Power at K4 in Oslo, Norway, and ALMANAK at Cemeti in Yogyakarta. Her work has featured in the 2022 Singapore Biennale, as well as in group exhibitions at Shedhalle in Zurich, Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, and Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, amongst others. Tontey’s performances have taken place at Performance Space Sydney, and Cemeti, Yogyakarta, amongst others. She holds the 2021-2023 Human Machine Fellowship at the Junge Akademie at Akademie der Künste Berlin.

Courtesy of the artist, co-produced by transmediale 2021 (Berlin) and Other Futures Festival (Amsterdam) / Animation Studio: DDDBandidos (Bandung, Indonesia) Music and Sound Design: Divisi 62 (Jakarta, Indonesia), and Mastering at Studio Oposisi (Jakarta, Indonesia). 

Ian Cheng

Emissary in the Squat of Gods
2015
Live simulation, infinite duration, sound

Emissary in the Squat of Gods tells the story of an ancient community living with the threat of a volcanic eruption. The central character, a child called an emissary, is an AI-driven entity that experiences consciousness, and who learns and adapts its behaviour over time.

This piece is part of the Emissaries trilogy, in which Ian Cheng used a game-engine to generate an infinite live-simulation, where characters behave both randomly and following a script in a never-ending, always transforming environment. Cheng’s work explores mutation, the history of human consciousness and our capacity as a species to relate to change. Through three interconnected episodes, the artist questions cognitive evolution: the transformation of psychological traits and the mechanism of a particular species’ change over time. In particular, he focuses on the influence of ecological conditions in the evolution of organisms by creating a series of creatures that have to adapt to a changing environment. In this case, the artwork introduces us to a non-human ecology, where inhabitants interact with an artificial wilderness, uncontrolled by human-like premises, guided by a pre-scripted yet evolving non-human agency.

Courtesy of the artist, Gladstone Gallery, Pilar Corrias, London and Standard (Oslo)

Emissary in the Squat of Gods

Zach Blas

Profundior (Lachryphagic Transmutation Deus-Motus-Data Network)
2022
Two-channel video, six videos, two video projections, color, sound, metal, water
Looped

This immersive moving image installation responds to longstanding entanglements of spirituality and technology in Silicon Valley, identifying religious dynamics within the tech industry’s drive to capture and calculate emotions. In the form of a holy black-boxed network system powered by crying, the artist presents an imagined Artificial Intelligence deity named Lacrimae that consumes human emotions by drinking their tears. In a never-ending ritual cycle, Lacrimae extracts emotional tears from weeping human simulations into a churning pool and transmutates this liquid into data, including text, images, and sound, as the god strives to create a perfected computational language of emotional expression. The installation reimagines the act of religious weeping as a new kind of digital body horror, suggesting that tears symbolise, through their very externalisation of emotion, the myriad forms of emotional extraction necessary for AI, as a technology and industry, to ascend as an entity seemingly imbued with godly power.

Commissioned by Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art / Producer: Lili-Maxx Hager / Architect and Designer: Scott Kepford / Computer Graphics: Harry Sanderson / Machine Learning Engineers (video and text):  Ashwin D’Cruz and Christopher Tegho / Graphic Design: Studio Pandan / Video Editor: Marine Renaudineau / Audio: xin / Additional Audio Engineering: Aya Sinclair / Sound Editor: Tom Sedgwick / Sound Design: Ben Hurd / Metal Fabrication: Bernd Euler / Acrylic Fabrication: Uwe Schwarzer - mixedmedia berlin / Research and Production Assistant: Audrey Ammann / Documentation Videography and Editing: Martin Gajc / Supported by Canada Council for the Arts and UP Projects / Special Thanks: Kader Attia, Ana Teixeira Pinto, Melody Jue, Pinar Yoldas, Marcela Coto, and Jasmina Tumbas

Profundior
(Lachryphagic Transmutation
Deus-Motus-Data Network)

Eva L’Hoest

What Hath God Wrought? (film)
2023
Accessible online
Video, color, sound
15 min

The newly commissioned work by Eva L’Hoest is a film that unravels the history of the undersea cable network supporting the infrastructure of the digital era. In What Hath God Wrought? (film), the cables embody the passage of time from their inception as telegraph lines to the SunCable project; an energy and infrastructural project set to link the world’s largest solar farm in Australia's Northern Territory to Singapore, providing an estimated 20% of the Asian metropolis’ energy. Crossing the Indonesian archipelago, the SunCable charts a course across continents. Entangled in a web of ethical issues and colonial history, the piece weaves together historical narratives and contemporary imagery. Blending 16mm film and CGI the film traces the evolution of energy, animism, and resources, seen through the lens of the digital age.

Written, directed and edited by Eva L’Hoest and James Vaughan / Cinematography and grading by Dimitri Zaunders / Music performed and composed by John Also Bennett / Voice narrated by Juliet Darling / Voice recorded by Paul Alkhallaf 

What Hath God Wrought? (film)

Eva L’Hoest

What Hath God Wrought? (video sculpture)
2023
Two-channel video, color, silent
Looped

In tandem with her online film, this multi-screen video-sculpture is a Computer Generated Image (CGI) of a metaphorical braid reminiscent of Rapunzel's fairy tale. The Rapunzel metaphor tells of protection from the evils of the world versus the inclination for -quite literally- reaching out. Rapunzel's captive existence in the tower, echoes the isolated nature of undersea cable networks, while the braid links her to the outer world. The hair in the braid alludes to early cable technology, with each strand of the braid subtly alluding to early cables — their copper material, their twists, and their role as communication pathways. The interplay between history and technology becomes an undercurrent as one ascends the stairs. The title What Hath God Wrought? means ‘What has God  Done?’, and, in 1844, Samuel Morse sent it as the first ever telegram.

What Hath God Wrought?
(video sculpture)

Tabita Rezaire

ULTRA WET - RECAPITULATION
2017-2018
Video projection mapping on wooden pyramid, color, sound
12 min 30 sec

Through radiant textures and floating flowers, serpents, and galaxies Tabita Rezaire composes a symbolic journey into the wisdom and indigenous traditions of pre-colonial Africa. In ULTRA WET – RECAPITULATION, the artist calls for action to bridge the gap between masculine and feminine energies in order to achieve a more balanced world. Through animated imagery and video collages, she seeks to remind us of pre-colonial African societies and ancient indigenous ways of life: free from preset, clear-cut binary structures and gender norms enforced in Western culture. Enhanced by the sacred form of the pyramid, her work celebrates erotism and liberation, setting out to provide a pathway to move away from the oppressive binaries and patriarchal structures that dominate contemporary societies. 

Courtesy of the artist and Goodman Gallery.

ULTRA WET - RECAPITULATION

Keiken

Morphogenic Angels
2023
Video game, color, sound, Hi-shine flooring, PVC seats


Three whispering voices accompany a character painstakingly running across a mountain range. Confused, this being tries to understand where to go and how they got to this inhospitable place. All of a sudden the protagonist, Yaxu, encounters another sexless creature, Anamt'u'úl. They fall in love after what seems to have been a debilitating evolution.

Morphogenic Angels (2023) is a worldbuilding project that imagines what life could be like 1000 years from now. In the future depicted by Keiken, humans can upgrade themselves through technologies. Called morphogenesis, the process allows their bodies to be organically re-engineered. This controller game generates an immersive experience that examines the potential of creating new forms of consciousness through artificial intelligence (AI). The process of morphogenesis enables the characters to develop not only human but also animal, plant, or inter-species consciousness. In spite of their differences, the two characters strive to evolve and remain together as their metaverse unfolds ahead of them. In this way, the game explores the issue of what love (and suffering) will mean in a future context of interspecies connection.

Creative direction: Tanya Cruz, Hana Omori and Isabel Ramos (Keiken) / Programming, Game Design and Technical Direction: Limbo Tech / Visual Effects, Art Direction & Game Design: Mati Bratkowski / Animation/VFX: Carlos Minozzi  / Music and Sound Design: wavesovspace / Environment Creation, Concept & Design: 00 Zhang / Motion Capture Movement: Sophie Mars / Voice Actor - Yaxu: Tanya Cruz / Voice Actor - Anamt’u’ul: Claire O’Leary / Voice Actor - Yaxu Ancestor 1: Helen Cruz  / Voice Actor - Yaxu Ancestor 2: Chema Cruz / Voice Actor - Narrator: Elvera Avery / Additional Visual Effects: Clifford Sage / 360 VR and CGI Video Visuals: George Jasper Stone / Studio Management: Hekátē Studios (Dominic Lauren, Vaso Papadopoulou, Aristea Rellou) / Technical Production: James Stringer / Project Production: Alexander Boyes

Chapter 1 of Morphogenic Angels was commissioned by HAU Hebbel Am Ufer.

Prototype support thanks to C/O Berlin. 

With thanks to Somerset House Studios, DCMS and Arts Council England.

Morphogenic Angels

Korakrit Arunanondchai & Alex Gvojic

Songs for Living
2021
Video, color, sound
20 min 53 sec


What happens to a person’s spirit after death? In Songs for Living, Korakrit Arunanondchai and Alex Gvojic imagine a mystical place where enigmatic beings gather to perform collective rituals. Freed from the burdens of the human condition, the creatures find a new access to nature, intimacy, and collectivity. Guided by the voice of the god-like narrator, the spirits attempt to find their way back to the world of the living, connect with their ancestors, and be reborn. Throughout this transformative journey, both the elements of fire and water play an important role: the former, representing the cremation of the body, the latter a source of life.

Courtesy of the artists, C L E A R I N G New York/ Brussels, Carlos Ishikawa London, Bangkok CityCity Gallery, Bangkok, Kukje Gallery Seoul/Busan. Commissioned by Migros Museum & Kunstverein in Hamburg with support from FACT Liverpool. Installation: Soft Room (2021), design by flore fockedey & Sébastien Roy

Songs for Living

Keiken

Angel Arcade
2023
Online video game, color, sound

Online, the visitor can continue the experience by playing the game Angel Arcade (2023), a collaboration with creative coders Obso1337, and an extension of Morphogenic Angels. In this game, the notion of future exists in a radically different time and space that defies our current political, societal, financial, and subjective reality. In this world, people (called "Angels") have gained post-human capabilities through the organic reengineering of their cells, which allows them to tap into non-human consciousness and merge with different species. The online game uses a combination of touch interactions and device motion. Players can move through a 3D landscape while collecting cells that enable them to alter their genetic code, becoming a Morphogenic Angel.

Co-commissioned by KANAL-Centre Pompidou and HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2023, supported by Saastamoinen Foundation / Creative Direction: Keiken / Creative Coding: Obso1337 / Sound & Music Design: Wavesovspace

Content extracted from Morphogenic Angels Chapter 1 / Made in collaboration with Mati Bratkowski, George Jasper Stone, Limbotech, 00 Zhang, Wavesovspace, Carlos Minozzi, Sophie Mars and more

Angel Arcade

Natasha Tontey

 Wa'anak Witu Watu / Beranak Dalam Batu
2021
Video
24 min 35 sec

The title of the video, set on the Indonesian island Sulawesi, translates from Tolour (a language spoken in the northeast of Sulawesi), to 'Birth in the Stone'. According to the local Minahasa peoples’ beliefs, stones are a source of knowledge. It is through them that the first person (a woman) was born. Indigenous myths and spiritual practices—valuing the animate and inanimate—stood in stark contrast with modernity and capitalist values imposed by Dutch colonists present on the island from the late 17th century. Exploring the Minhasan traditions through digital culture, the film envisions a society based on principles of reciprocity beyond anthropocentrism.

Courtesy of the artist, co-produced by transmediale 2021 (Berlin) and Other Futures Festival (Amsterdam). Animation Studio: DDDBandidos (Bandung, Indonesia) Music and Sound Design: Divisi 62 (Jakarta, Indonesia), and Mastering at Studio Oposisi (Jakarta, Indonesia).

Wa'anak Witu Watu /
Beranak Dalam Batu
Angel Arcade_MA_keiken_unmasked.00_11_52_33.Still006
Angel Arcade_MA_keiken_unmasked.00_16_21_18.Still007
Arcade Angels_MA_keiken_unmasked.00_03_31_33.Still004

Commissioned for Connecting:
Keiken
Angel Arcade, 2023
Online video game, color, sound

Keiken

Angel Arcade
2023
Online video game, color, sound

Online, the visitor can continue the experience by playing the game Angel Arcade (2023), a collaboration with creative coders Obso1337, and an extension of Morphogenic Angels. In this game, the notion of future exists in a radically different time and space that defies our current political, societal, financial, and subjective reality. In this world, people (called "Angels") have gained post-human capabilities through the organic reengineering of their cells, which allows them to tap into non-human consciousness and merge with different species. The online game uses a combination of touch interactions and device motion. Players can move through a 3D landscape while collecting cells that enable them to alter their genetic code, becoming a Morphogenic Angel.

Co-commissioned by KANAL-Centre Pompidou and HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2023, supported by Saastamoinen Foundation / Creative Direction: Keiken / Creative Coding: Obso1337 / Sound & Music Design: Wavesovspace

Content extracted from Morphogenic Angels Chapter 1 / Made in collaboration with Mati Bratkowski, George Jasper Stone, Limbotech, 00 Zhang, Wavesovspace, Carlos Minozzi, Sophie Mars and more

Info
Keiken_Morphogenic_Angels_2022_game (1) credits Morphogenic Angels, 2022-23 (game still)
Keiken_Morphogenic_Angels_2022_game (2)

Keiken
Morphogenic Angels, 2023
Video game, color, sound, Hi-shine flooring, PVC seats

Keiken

Morphogenic Angels
2023
Video game, color, sound, Hi-shine flooring, PVC seats

Three whispering voices accompany a character painstakingly running across a mountain range. Confused, this being tries to understand where to go and how they got to this inhospitable place. All of a sudden the protagonist, Yaxu, encounters another sexless creature, Anamt'u'úl. They fall in love after what seems to have been a debilitating evolution.

Morphogenic Angels (2023) is a worldbuilding project that imagines what life could be like 1000 years from now. In the future depicted by Keiken, humans can upgrade themselves through technologies. Called morphogenesis, the process allows their bodies to be organically re-engineered. This controller game generates an immersive experience that examines the potential of creating new forms of consciousness through artificial intelligence (AI). The process of morphogenesis enables the characters to develop not only human but also animal, plant, or inter-species consciousness. In spite of their differences, the two characters strive to evolve and remain together as their metaverse unfolds ahead of them. In this way, the game explores the issue of what love (and suffering) will mean in a future context of interspecies connection.

Creative direction: Tanya Cruz, Hana Omori and Isabel Ramos (Keiken) / Programming, Game Design and Technical Direction: Limbo Tech / Visual Effects, Art Direction & Game Design: Mati Bratkowski / Animation/VFX: Carlos Minozzi  / Music and Sound Design: wavesovspace / Environment Creation, Concept & Design: 00 Zhang / Motion Capture Movement: Sophie Mars / Voice Actor - Yaxu: Tanya Cruz / Voice Actor - Anamt’u’ul: Claire O’Leary / Voice Actor - Yaxu Ancestor 1: Helen Cruz  / Voice Actor - Yaxu Ancestor 2: Chema Cruz / Voice Actor - Narrator: Elvera Avery / Additional Visual Effects: Clifford Sage / 360 VR and CGI Video Visuals: George Jasper Stone / Studio Management: Hekátē Studios (Dominic Lauren, Vaso Papadopoulou, Aristea Rellou) / Technical Production: James Stringer / Project Production: Alexander Boyes

Chapter 1 of Morphogenic Angels was commissioned by HAU Hebbel Am Ufer.

Prototype support thanks to C/O Berlin. 

With thanks to Somerset House Studios, DCMS and Arts Council England.

Info

Commissioned for Connecting:
Eva L’Hoest
What Hath God Wrought? (film), 2023
Accessible online
Video, color, sound
15 min

Eva L'Hoest

What Hath God Wrought? (film)
2023
Accessible online
Video, color, sound
15 min

The newly commissioned work by Eva L’Hoest is a film that unravels the history of the undersea cable network supporting the infrastructure of the digital era. In What Hath God Wrought? (film), the cables embody the passage of time from their inception as telegraph lines to the SunCable project; an energy and infrastructural project set to link the world’s largest solar farm in Australia's Northern Territory to Singapore, providing an estimated 20% of the Asian metropolis’ energy. Crossing the Indonesian archipelago, the SunCable charts a course across continents. Entangled in a web of ethical issues and colonial history, the piece weaves together historical narratives and contemporary imagery. Blending 16mm film and CGI the film traces the evolution of energy, animism, and resources, seen throu<gh the lens of the digital age. 

Written, directed and edited by Eva L’Hoest and James Vaughan / Cinematography by Dimitri Zaunders / Music performed and composed by John Also Bennett / Voice narrated by Juliet Darling / Voice recorded by Paul Alkhallaf 

Info
2.1. Eva L'Hoest_ Installation Video_braid2
2.2. Eva L'Hoest_ Installation Video_braid2

Commissioned for Connecting:
Eva L’Hoest
What Hath God Wrought? (video sculpture), 2023
Two-channel video, color, silent
Looped

Eva L'Hoest

What Hath God Wrought? (video sculpture)
2023
Two-channel video, color, silent
Looped

In tandem with her online film, this multi-screen video-sculpture is a Computer Generated Image (CGI) of a metaphorical braid reminiscent of Rapunzel's fairy tale. The Rapunzel metaphor tells of protection from the evils of the world versus the inclination for -quite literally- reaching out. Rapunzel's captive existence in the tower, echoes the isolated nature of undersea cable networks, while the braid links her to the outer world. The hair in the braid alludes to early cable technology, with each strand of the braid subtly alluding to early cables — their copper material, their twists, and their role as communication pathways. The interplay between history and technology becomes an undercurrent as one ascends the stairs. The title What Hath God Wrought? means ‘What has God  Done?’, and, in 1844, Samuel Morse sent it as the first ever telegram. 

Info
1. Zach Blas_Profundior_zach-blas_001-compressed

Zach Blas
Profundior (Lachryphagic Transmutation Deus-Motus-Data Network), 2022
Two-channel video, six videos, two video projections, color, sound, metal, water
Looped

Zach Blas

Profundior (Lachryphagic Transmutation Deus-Motus-Data Network)
2022
Two-channel video, six videos, two video projections, color, sound, metal, water
Looped

This immersive moving image installation responds to longstanding entanglements of spirituality and technology in Silicon Valley, identifying religious dynamics within the tech industry’s drive to capture and calculate emotions. In the form of a holy black-boxed network system powered by crying, the artist presents an imagined Artificial Intelligence deity named Lacrimae that consumes human emotions by drinking their tears. In a never-ending ritual cycle, Lacrimae extracts emotional tears from weeping human simulations into a churning pool and transmutates this liquid into data, including text, images, and sound, as the god strives to create a perfected computational language of emotional expression. The installation reimagines the act of religious weeping as a new kind of digital body horror, suggesting that tears symbolise, through their very externalisation of emotion, the myriad forms of emotional extraction necessary for AI, as a technology and industry, to ascend as an entity seemingly imbued with godly power.

Commissioned by Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art / Producer: Lili-Maxx Hager / Architect and Designer: Scott Kepford / Computer Graphics: Harry Sanderson / Machine Learning Engineers (video and text):  Ashwin D’Cruz and Christopher Tegho / Graphic Design: Studio Pandan / Video Editor: Marine Renaudineau / Audio: xin / Additional Audio Engineering: Aya Sinclair / Sound Editor: Tom Sedgwick / Sound Design: Ben Hurd / Metal Fabrication: Bernd Euler / Acrylic Fabrication: Uwe Schwarzer - mixedmedia berlin / Research and Production Assistant: Audrey Ammann / Documentation Videography and Editing: Martin Gajc / Supported by Canada Council for the Arts and UP Projects / Special Thanks: Kader Attia, Ana Teixeira Pinto, Melody Jue, Pinar Yoldas, Marcela Coto, and Jasmina Tumbas

Info
3. Ian Cheng_EITSOG_SCREENSHOT_HUGERES_01_e

Ian Cheng
Emissary in the Squat of Gods, 2015
Live digital simulation, color, sound
Infinite duration

Ian Cheng

Emissary in the Squat of Gods
2015
Live digital simulation, color, sound
Infinite duration

Emissary in the Squat of Gods tells the story of an ancient community living with the threat of a volcanic eruption. The central character, a child called an emissary, is an AI-driven entity that experiences consciousness, and who learns and adapts its behaviour over time.

This piece is part of the Emissaries trilogy, in which Ian Cheng used a game-engine to generate an infinite live-simulation, where characters behave both randomly and following a script in a never-ending, always transforming environment. Cheng’s work explores mutation, the history of human consciousness and our capacity as a species to relate to change. Through three interconnected episodes, the artist questions cognitive evolution: the transformation of psychological traits and the mechanism of a particular species’ change over time. In particular, he focuses on the influence of ecological conditions in the evolution of organisms by creating a series of creatures that have to adapt to a changing environment. In this case, the artwork introduces us to a non-human ecology, where inhabitants interact with an artificial wilderness, uncontrolled by human-like premises, guided by a pre-scripted yet evolving non-human agency.

Courtesy of the artist, Gladstone Gallery, Pilar Corrias, London and Standard (Oslo)

Info
4. Tabita Rezaire_UltraWet-VillaMerkel5

Tabita Rezaire
ULTRA WET - RECAPITULATION, 2017-2018
Video projection mapping on wooden pyramid, color, sound
12 min 30 sec

Tabita Rezaire

ULTRA WET - RECAPITULATION
2017-2018
Video projection mapping on wooden pyramid, color, sound 12 min 30 sec

Through radiant textures and floating flowers, serpents, and galaxies Tabita Rezaire composes a symbolic journey into the wisdom and indigenous traditions of pre-colonial Africa. In ULTRA WET – RECAPITULATION, the artist calls for action to bridge the gap between masculine and feminine energies in order to achieve a more balanced world. Through animated imagery and video collages, she seeks to remind us of pre-colonial African societies and ancient indigenous ways of life: free from preset, clear-cut binary structures and gender norms enforced in Western culture. Enhanced by the sacred form of the pyramid, her work celebrates erotism and liberation, setting out to provide a pathway to move away from the oppressive binaries and patriarchal structures that dominate contemporary societies. 

Courtesy of the artist and Goodman Gallery. 

Info
5. Korakrit Arunanondchai & Alex Gvojic_image (2)

Korakrit Arunanondchai & Alex Gvojic
Songs for Living, 2021
Video, color, sound
20 min 53 sec

Korakrit Arunanondchai & Alex Gvojic

Songs for Living
2021
Video, color, sound
20 min 53 sec

What happens to a person’s spirit after death? In Songs for Living, Korakrit Arunanondchai and Alex Gvojic imagine a mystical place where enigmatic beings gather to perform collective rituals. Freed from the burdens of the human condition, the creatures find a new access to nature, intimacy, and collectivity. Guided by the voice of the god-like narrator, the spirits attempt to find their way back to the world of the living, connect with their ancestors, and be reborn. Throughout this transformative journey, both the elements of fire and water play an important role: the former, representing the cremation of the body, the latter a source of life.

Courtesy of the artists, C L E A R I N G New York/ Brussels, Carlos Ishikawa London, Bangkok CityCity Gallery, Bangkok, Kukje Gallery Seoul/Busan. Commissioned by Migros Museum & Kunstverein in Hamburg with support from FACT Liverpool. Installation: Soft Room (2021), design by flore fockedey & Sébastien Roy

Info
7. Natasha Tontey_Wa'anak Witu Watu_work in progress_02

Natasha Tontey
Wa'anak Witu Watu / Beranak Dalam Batu, 2021
Video, color, sound
24 min 35 sec

Natasha Tontey

Wa'anak Witu Watu / Beranak Dalam Batu
2021
Video, color, sound
24 min 35 sec

The title of the video, set on the Indonesian island Sulawesi, translates from Tolour (a language spoken in the northeast of Sulawesi), to 'Birth in the Stone'. According to the local Minahasa peoples’ beliefs, stones are a source of knowledge. It is through them that the first person (a woman) was born. Indigenous myths and spiritual practices—valuing the animate and inanimate—stood in stark contrast with modernity and capitalist values imposed by Dutch colonists present on the island from the late 17th century. Exploring the Minhasan traditions through digital culture, the film envisions a society based on principles of reciprocity beyond anthropocentrism.

Courtesy of the artist, co-produced by transmediale 2021 (Berlin) and Other Futures Festival (Amsterdam). Animation Studio: DDDBandidos (Bandung, Indonesia) Music and Sound Design: Divisi 62 (Jakarta, Indonesia), and Mastering at Studio Oposisi (Jakarta, Indonesia).

Info

Programme

Kanal ACT
Activity booklet

Extra Info

Our activity booklet for young visitors is available for free from reception. It invites children to be ACTive ACTors during their visit. This playful exhibition guide was designed by illustrator and neighbour Teresa Sdralevich.

Info

Format 3
Graphic composition / interactive experiment

Extra Info

Format 3 lets you create a musical score using graphic symbols. These are printed on flexible magnets and can be placed on a magnetised wall. By scanning the symbols, designed by artist duo FOO/SKOU, on your iPhone*, digital visualisations transform your graphic composition into a soundscape. 

 

The graphic score, a form of musical notation that uses visual symbols to represent music, is at the heart of the sound experimentation proposed by Louise Foo and Martha Skou a.k.a. FOO/SKOU. Through their research, the duo combine technology with craft, with a focus on the materialisation of digital tools and the infinite interactive possibilities within their work. 

 

Interactive jackets have been designed especially for the Connecting exhibition to be worn by the KANAL team, in order to encourage the public to interact with our mediators. 

*iPads are available from reception if required.

Info

October


06.10.2023
18:30-20:00
Talks

Meet with
w/Zach Blas, Keiken,
Eva L´Hoest (EN)

Extra Info

Meet the artists and discover the stories behind the Connecting works. Zach Blas, Eva L’Hoest and Keiken discuss their works and the ideas and research behind their projects. The conversation will be moderated by Joasia Krysa, artistic director of the Helsinki Biennale 2023.

Zach Blas is an artist, filmmaker, and writer based in Toronto whose practice spans moving image, computation, theory, performance, and science fiction, while exploring topics such as technology, queerness, and politics. Blas’ work has been exhibited at the Berlin Biennial, the Gwangju Biennial, the Warszawa Biennale, Art in General in New York, Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, MAXXI in Rome, MOCA Chicago, MAAT in Lisbon, and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Blas is Assistant Professor of Visual Studies at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. His publication Unknown Ideals is published by Sternberg Press and Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst. 

Eva L’Hoest is a multimedia artist based in Brussels. She uses digital language to decode the role of emotions, affect, language, and memories. Recently, her work has been exhibited in major events such as the Biennale of Sydney in 2022, the 2020 Riga International Biennial Of Contemporary Art, the Okayama Art Summit and the Lyon Biennale, both in 2019. Her work has been shown in exhibitions at WIELS in Brussels, Malmö Museum in Sweden, Le Botanique in Brussels, IKOB in Eupen, Casino Luxembourg, La Boverie in Liège, and at Air Antwerp. She is currently an artist in residence at International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York.  

Keiken is a cross-dimensional collaborative practice (Hana Omori, Isabel Ramos, and Tanya Cruz), whose work merges the physical with the digital by building online worlds and augmented realities to be experienced (Keiken is the Japanese word for experience). The collective is based between London and Berlin, working with virtual reality, augmented reality, performance, and gaming engines to explore new fictional presents and futures. Recent exhibitions include the Helsinki Biennial 2023, the Thailand Biennale, and the Venice Architecture Biennale, both in 2021, as well as exhibitions and commissions at and for HeK Haus der Elektronischen Künste in Basel, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Somerset House in London, C/O Berlin, and transmediale in Berlin. 

Joasia Krysa is a curator, researcher and academic. She works at the intersection of contemporary art and technology. She curated the Helsinki Biennale 2023, entitled New Directions May Emerge. With a focus on humans, animals, plants, the environment, data and other entities around us, the biennale aims to explore new ways of living and understanding the world.

Info
Tickets


07.10.2023
14:00-15:00
Guided tour

Guided tour with the curators (EN)

Extra Info

Join Barbara Cueto and Bas Hendrikx, who curated Connecting, for a behind-the-scenes tour of the exhibition. Cueto and Hendrikx share their perspectives, explain how the exhibition came to be, and reveal the exhibition's many subterranean narratives.

Barbara Cueto is curator. His projects lie at the intersection of contemporary art, new technologies and activism. She currently works as a digital art curator at LAS Art Foundation in Berlin. Bas Hendrikx is curator in charge of public participation and engagement at KANAL-Centre Pompidou. Before Connecting, Barbara Cueto and Bas Hendrikx have jointly curated exhibitions, festivals and events for De Appel arts center in Amsterdam, Impakt Festival in Utrecht, Inter/Access in Toronto and Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Cueto and Hendrikx co-edited "Authenticity? Observations and Artistic Strategies in the Post-Digital Age" with Valiz in 2017.

Info
Tickets


08.10.2023
11:00-12:00
Guided tour

Slow visit - Mindfulness (FR)

Extra Info

Taking the time to be totally absorbed by a work of art is becoming a rare occurrence in today’s fast-paced society. Marjan Abadie developed her Mindful Art Experience method to invite the public to slow down. Using mindfulness, she encourages us to gain a more emotional and intuitive understanding of works of art. Bring comfortable clothing! 

As of age 7. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Info
Tickets


12.10.2023
19:00-20:00
Guided tour

Perspecti-ef-ve visit (FR)

Extra Info

Discover the Connecting exhibition through the eyes of Sara Oualad, deputy director of MolenGeek, a technology incubator and ecosystem at the heart of Molenbeek. MolenGeek's mission is to make the digital technology sector accessible to everyone, through coworking spaces, training programmes and events like conferences and hackathons. For KANAL-Centre Pompidou, MolenGeek designed the microsite connecting.kanal.brussels, where you can discover the exhibition content and the digital works available online.  

The Perspecti·ef·ve tours are guided by public figures who shed an original light on the exhibition through their areas of expertise.

Info
Tickets


21.10.2023
19:00-01:00
Guided tour

Museum Night Fever

Extra Info

19:00-00:00 

DISCOVER 

Discover the Connecting exhibition with our guides and mediators! 

EXPERIENCE 

Compose a musical score by scanning the graphic symbols designed by artist duo FOO/SKOU. The digital display on your iPhone recognises the shapes and transforms your graphic composition into a soundscape. 

CONNECT 

Connect with others over a drink at K1’s pop-up bar. 

19:30–20:00 & 21:00–21:30: 

MEET

Curator Bas Hendrikx guides you through the world of the artists of the Connecting exhibition.

Info
Tickets


22.10.2023
11:00-12:00
Guided tour

Slow visit - Mindfulness (NL)

Extra Info

Taking the time to be totally absorbed by a work of art is becoming a rare occurrence in today’s fast-paced society. Marjan Abadie developed her Mindful Art Experience method to invite the public to slow down. Using mindfulness, she encourages us to gain a more emotional and intuitive understanding of works of art. Bring comfortable clothing! 

 As of age 7. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Info
Tickets


28.10.2023
14:00-15:00
Guided tour

Perspecti·ef·ve tour (EN)

Extra Info

Discover the Connecting exhibition through the eyes of Lucia Garcia, the general director of iMAL, a space dedicated to artistic practices linked to the creative and critical use of new technologies. Just a stone's throw from KANAL, on the Quai des Charbonnages in Molenbeek, iMAL brings together a community of artists and citizens from Belgium and abroad, offering an open space for research, production and presentation.

The Perspecti·ef·ve tours are guided by public figures who shed an original light on the exhibition through their areas of expertise.

Info
Tickets


29.10.2023
11:00-12:00
Guided tour

Guided tour in Belgian French sign language (LSFB)

Extra Info

Guided tour in Belgian French sign language (LSFB)

Info
Tickets

November


02.11.2023
18:00-19:30
Live performance

Borderline Visible (a collective constellation) by Ant Hampton / Time Based Editions (FR)

Extra Info

Urgent and rolling, this 77-minute experience, fuelled with music by Oren Ambarchi and Perila, pieces together value and meaning from the very human ruins of aspiration, history, and language, as it shifts back and forth along a journeyed path between Lausanne and Izmir.

Time Based Editions’ new format presents ‘audio and visual’ as separate elements, held together in the present through a physical synchronisation of our hands. Together we dive into a here-and-now of the page: printed photography brought alive by a soundscape that both guides and surrounds us. Ant Hampton’s careful, at times miraculous process of reconnection gradually lights up a constellation: voices and earthquakes, Sephardic diasporas, forced movement, breakdowns and dementia, swifts and swallows, poet T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’ and a unique insight into atrocities at the eastern edge of Europe being funded from its centre.

Info
Tickets


02.11.2023
19:30-21:00
Live performance

Borderline Visible (a collective constellation) by Ant Hampton / Time Based Editions (EN)

Extra Info

Urgent and rolling, this 77-minute experience, fuelled with music by Oren Ambarchi and Perila, pieces together value and meaning from the very human ruins of aspiration, history, and language, as it shifts back and forth along a journeyed path between Lausanne and Izmir. 

Time Based Editions’ ingenious new format presents ‘audio and visual’ as separate elements, held together in the present through a physical synchronisation of our hands. Together we dive into a here-and-now of the page: printed photography brought alive by a soundscape that both guides and surrounds us. Ant Hampton’s careful, at times miraculous process of reconnection gradually lights up a constellation: voices and earthquakes, Sephardic diasporas, forced movement, breakdowns and dementia, swifts and swallows, Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’ and a unique insight into atrocities at the eastern edge of Europe being funded from its centre.

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09.11.2023
19:00-20:00
Guided tour

Perspecti·ef·ve tour (NL)

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Discover the Connecting exhibition through the eyes of artist Seppe De Roo. His work combines historical painting techniques with digital techniques such as RayTracing, or sculpture with 3D printing. Based in Brussels, De Roo is currently working on a curatorial and educational strategy to help raise the profile of emerging artists.

The Perspecti·ef·ve tours are guided by public figures who shed an original light on the exhibition through their areas of expertise.

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12.11.2023
11:00-12:00
Guided tour

Slow visit - Mindfulness (FR)

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Taking the time to be totally absorbed by a work of art is becoming a rare occurrence in today’s fast-paced society. Marjan Abadie developed her Mindful Art Experience method to invite the public to slow down. Using mindfulness, she encourages us to gain a more emotional and intuitive understanding of works of art. Bring comfortable clothing! 

As of age 7. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

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12.11.2023
11:00-12:00
Kunstendag voor Kinderen

Slow visit - Mindfulness (NL)

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Taking the time to be totally absorbed by a work of art is becoming a rare occurrence in today’s fast-paced society. Marjan Abadie developed her Mindful Art Experience method to invite the public to slow down. Using mindfulness, she encourages us to gain a more emotional and intuitive understanding of works of art. Bring comfortable clothing! 

As of age 7. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

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19.11.2023
12:00-12:45
Kunstendag voor Kinderen

Children’s visit with artist Ann-Sophie Tollet (NL)

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What exactly is an immersive installation? What about the metaverse? And what role does technology play in our daily lives? Together we’ll try to answer these questions as we explore the exhibition with artist Ann-Sophie Tollet. Let’s play, let’s open our senses and be swept away by the works of art and their captivating stories.

6–12 years.

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19.11.2023
13:00-14:00
Kunstendag voor Kinderen

Workshop Cloud Attitude - TIC TAC LAB (NL)

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Every day, we feed mountains of data into the cloud without considering the shape and whims of this big, sensitive thing. The Cloud Attitude project aims to shed light on our digital cloud in a playful, instructive and poetic way. Made by hand, a ‘real’ cloud reacts to the surrounding noise using sound sensors. When the ambient noise exceeds a certain level… it starts to thunder!

6–12 years.

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19.11.2023
14:00-15:00
Kunstendag voor Kinderen

Slow visit - Mindfulness (NL)

Extra Info

Taking the time to be totally absorbed by a work of art is becoming a rare occurrence in today’s fast-paced society. Marjan Abadie developed her Mindful Art Experience method to invite the public to slow down. Using mindfulness, she encourages us to gain a more emotional and intuitive understanding of works of art. Bring comfortable clothing! 

As of age 7. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

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19.11.2023
15:00-16:00
Kunstendag voor Kinderen

Workshop Cloud Attitude - TIC TAC LAB (NL)

Extra Info

Every day, we feed mountains of data into the cloud without considering the shape and whims of this big, sensitive thing. The Cloud Attitude project aims to shed light on our digital cloud in a playful, instructive and poetic way. Made by hand, a ‘real’ cloud reacts to the surrounding noise using sound sensors. When the ambient noise exceeds a certain level… it starts to thunder!

6-12 years.

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26.11.2023
11:00
Guided Tour

Guided tour in Belgian Dutch sign language (VGT)

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Guided tour in Belgian Dutch sign language (VGT)

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30.11.2023
18:30-20:00
Talks

Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven in conversation with Michelle Cotton (EN)

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As part of the commission for Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven’s FAÇADE series, Belgium’s pioneering digital artist engages in conversation with Michelle Cotton. AMVK’s FAÇADE explores how myths, memories and land have come to defi ne Brussels, how this infrastructure affects city dwellers, and how they in turn transform the city.

AMVK will discuss this new public work with Michelle Cotton along the state of digital art in Belgium and her new publication 33 vrouwenreeksen, published by Bruno Devos. Cotton and AMVK previously worked together on the exhibition The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed - Kunst im Zeitalter künstlicher Intelligenz at Kunstverein Bonn in 2017.

Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven's work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Belgium and abroad. Her work can be found in numerous private and public collections. 

Michelle Cotton is currently Director of Artistic Programmes and Content at MUDAM in Luxembourg. From 2010 to 2015, Cotton was senior curator at Firstsite in Colchester, England, before becoming director of Kunstverein in Bonn, Germany, from 2015 to 2019. In the summer of 2024, she will become director of the Kunsthalle in Vienna, Austria.

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COLOPHON

Artistes
Korakrit Arunanondchai & Alex Gvojic, Zach Blas, Ian Cheng, Keiken, Eva L’Hoest, Tabita Rezaire, Natasha Tontey

Curator
Barbara Cueto & Bas Hendrikx

With the participation of
D-E-A-L, FOO/SKOU, Helsinki Biennial, Mindfulness Institute, MolenGeek, TIC TAC LAB

COLOPHON

Artists
Korakrit Arunanondchai & Alex Gvojic, Zach Blas, Ian Cheng, Keiken, Eva L’Hoest, Tabita Rezaire, Natasha Tontey

Curator
Barbara Cueto & Bas Hendrikx

With the participation of
D-E-A-L, FOO/SKOU, Helsinki Biennial, Mindfulness Institute, MolenGeek,
TIC TAC LAB

With the support of:

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