About the exhibition
This exhibition is part of 37th Chaos Communication Congress UNLOCKED.
With "Animal()City” we draw inspiration from the ghostly presence of foxes that roam the city at night - which nowadays is a common appearance in Berlin - evoking echoes of a pre-industrial era while at the same time drawing people’s attention to a layer of the city that completely eludes their perception in everyday life. In these moments we witness animals and plants forming their own realm and the city itself having its own life, acting like an entity, a ghost at times. Encounters with wild animals in the city make the parallel layers of the landscape momentarily tangible and remind us that we are part of these ‘non-human’ networks as well. On a darker note: urban wildlife not only echoes pre-industrial times but also projects an idea of what our cities will look like when all the people have disappeared due to the consequences of the climate catastrophe. However, the city may also be read analogous to the internet. Animals, humans and plants seldomly interact within the city, and while we might notice traces or encounter their phantoms we seem to live in parallel worlds. Similarly, online we are divided by platforms into threads and channels, living in multi-layered structures haunted by uncanny bots and AI agents.
We believe that AR sculptures highlight an ethereal quality of the digital; they appear to transcend from the realm of immateriality into the physical space - the so-called spatial internet that overlays our cities. AR layers possess a magical quality in that they exist as objects whose influence on our world is - on a first step - contingent to our acceptance and perception of them as physical objects.
"Animal()City” is an aesthetic inquiry of the artists’ views on how AR may intercept different layers of perception and realities or completely superimpose them.
The exhibition presents a collection of animals that transcend their natural forms and assume various "non-natural" shapes; from fantastical mythical creatures to archetypical animal sculpture adhering to classical composition to the most basic 3D animal assets, taken from game engine templates. These AR-animals introduce elements of imagination to their representation, inviting viewers to explore their own interpretations and engage with the artworks on different levels.
Artists
Joachim Blank (born in Aachen, lives in Berlin) is a visual artist who works with various media, materials and formats. In the 90ies he was one of the founding members of the genre Net Art and works now in the field of Expanded Sculpture, Installation, 3D and AR. He is a Professor of Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig.
Eva Davidova explores behavior, ecological disaster, and the political implications of technology through performative works rooted in the absurd. Davidova has exhibited at the Bronx Museum, the UVP at Everson Museum, the AKG Buffalo Art Museum, MACBA Barcelona, CAAC Sevilla, La Regenta, ISSUE Project Room, Harvestworks, Instituto Cervantes, and the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC among others.
Meredith Drum is an interdisciplinary artist working with video, animation, installation, augmented reality, and various modes of public participation. Her projects center around the cultivation of care for others, both humans and non-humans. She is influenced by socialist feminism, cinema history, swimming in the ocean, climate justice, multispecies anthropology, cultural studies, walking in the woods, science fiction, riding bikes with loved ones, contemporary visual culture, getting lost in cities, and her family, friends, and cats. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, CEC Arts Link, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, iLand (Interdisciplinary Lab for Art, Nature + Dance), the Wassaic Project, the Experimental Television Center, ChaNorth, ISSUE Project Room, the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts, Wave Farm Transmission Arts with the New York State Council on the Arts, and others have supported Drum’s work with grants and residencies.
exonemo The Japanese artist unit "exonemo" (by SEMBO Kensuke and AKAIWA Yae) was formed in 1996 on the Internet. Their experimental projects are typically humorous and innovative explorations of the paradoxes of digital and analog computer networked and actual environments in our lives. Their The Road Movie won the Golden Nica for Net Vision category at Prix Ars Electronica 2006. They have been organizing the IDPW gatherings and "Internet Yami-Ichi" since 2012. (the exhibited work is supported by Supported by NowHere and NFT advisor Toshi / wildmouse)
Jonas Lund (1984, Sweden) creates paintings, sculpture, photography, websites and performances that critically reflect on contemporary networked systems and power structures of control. His artistic practice involves creating systems and setting up parameters that oftentimes require engagement from the viewer. This results in performative artworks where tasks are executed according to algorithms or a set of rules. Lund questions the traditional power structures that characterize the contemporary art world, as well as the process of making optimal strategic decisions. Through his works, Lund investigates the latest issues generated by the increasing digitalisation of contemporary society like authorship, participation and distribution of agency. At the same time, he questions the mechanisms of the art world; he challenges the production process, authoritative power and art market practices.
Sahej Rahal (b. 1988, lives and works in Mumbai, India) is primarily a storyteller. He weaves together fact and fiction, to create counter-mythologies that interrogate narratives shaping the present. His myth-world takes the shape of sculptures, performances, films, paintings, installations, and AI programs, that he creates by drawing upon sources ranging from local legends to science fiction, rendering scenarios where indeterminate beings emerge from the cracks in our civilization. Rahal’s participation in group and solo exhibitions includes the Gwangju Biennale, the Liverpool Biennial, the Kochi Biennale, the Vancouver Biennale, MACRO Museum Rome, Kadist SF, ACCA Melbourne, CCA Glasgow. He is the recipient of the Cove Park/Henry Moore Fellowship, Akademie Schloss Solitude Fellowship, the Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation Installation Art Grant, the Digital Earth Fellowship, and the first Human-Machine Fellowship organized by Junge Akademie ADK.
Ingeborg Wie Henriksen uses play as a platform for art and creates interactive experiences about cats where life and art becomes one. She is very much influenced by spirituality in nature as well as nature in urban surroundings. She use elements of animism, mythology, spiritual alchemy in her works. Ingeborg has exhibited with LAS Berlin, Cashmere Radio, gallery DADA post, ACUD and at the Winter Solstice festival in Oslo.