The installation Tipping Point by Barthélemy Antoine-Loeff  is a sensitive and poetic tribute to those dying glaciers. It stages the (re)birth of an artificial glacier protected by a dome; a drip is feeding the glacier that will grow during the exhibition. The device invites the viewer to attend the birth of this artificial glacier. It is inspired by the “ice stupas” invented by the engineer Sonam Wangchuk and used to fight against water shortages during the summer in Ladakh.
Between a laboratory experiment, an attempt to repair the climate or an ironic collector’s item, the installation confronts us with time and scales; 10.000 years ago, the stabilisation of our cryosphere coincided with the first human traces we found in Mesopotamia, while the fist glaciers are disappearing in 70 years under the pressure of the human activity.

Barthélemy Antoine-Loeff
Biennale EXPERIMENTA

The exhibition The Presence of Absence occupies the entire exhibition space of the Frankfurter Kunstverein, covering 1,000 square meters. Thematically, the exhibition revolves around humanity’s timeless engagement with the idea of transience and its forms of representation in art. The title refers to matter as a presence where traces of the living are inscribed. Vital energy is powerful yet fleeting. It leaves a mark, a trace that, captured in matter, can endure over time.

The exhibition juxtaposes exhibits spatially, presenting the abstract idea of a “presence of the absent” from both artistic and scientific perspectives within an expanded conceptual space. The curatorial narrative ventures as far as the astrophysical phenomenon of the black hole. Thoughts on the expanse and time, and the infinity of the universe lie beyond our human imagination, yet simultaneously raise the question of who we are. Our planet hovers somewhere between immensity and eternity. And for a fleeting moment, our own lives open a window.

The self experiences the wonder of reality through the senses of our bodies. These consist of the elements of exploded stars in the cosmos: the nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our bones, the iron in our blood, or the carbon in our cells. In fleeting moments, we connect with eternity and give traces of being a material form. Art is one way to do that.

Curated by Franziska Nori, with scientific support from Anita Lavorano and Laura Perrone

SHRINK 01995 - Two large, transparent plastic sheets and a device that gradually sucks the air out from between them leave the body vacuum-packed and vertically suspended. The transparent tube inserted between the two surfaces allows the person inside the installation to regulate the flow of air. As a result of the increasing pressure between the plastic sheets, the surface of the packed body gradually freezes into multiple micro-folds. For the duration of the performance the person inside moves slowly and changes positions, which vary from an almost embryonic position to one resembling a crucified body.

SHRINK 01995 performances every weekend by different performers
Saturdays: 16:00 & 17:00
Sundays: 15:30 & 16:30
Duration: 20 minutes per performance
Included in the admission price of the exhibition ‘Das Anwesen des Abwesenden’, no reservation necessary.

Lawrence Malstaf
Frankfurter Kunstverein

Ad Hominem by Alex Verhaest is a video game that philosophically interrogates utopian thinking. In a first-person narrative, the player takes on the role of “Change”, an old revolutionary time-traveler who returns to their hometown seeking recognition for past achievements. There, Change encounters four individuals who embody the four types of utopias as theorized by scholar Sofie Verraest. In their doctoral dissertation, Eutopia Unbound: Imagining Good Places in Narratives from 1945 to the Present, Verraest defines four utopian tropes: communitarianism, futurism, isolationism and hedonism.

Going beyond the pure imagination of collective futures, Ad Hominem simulates a utopian ideal by actively inviting the public to discover their individual positioning within this maze of contrasting ideas and to envision their future selves by engaging with or challenging old ideas about the future. By confronting players with the inevitable connection between our past, present and future, Alex Verhaest encourages reflection on our present selves and an understanding of the deep responsibility our actions hold for collective futures.

The exhibition Fin et début / Einde en begin is challenging long-held notions of human singularity, excessive progress and growth, Fin et début / Einde en begin redefines care and resilience as ecological and relational structures connecting humans, nature and technology.

Alex Verhaest
iMAL

Luminous Ether by Aernoudt Jacobs is a work that renders the inaudible electromagnetic fields around and beyond Earth perceptible through voices generated by AI algorithms. It combines ancient methods and novel techniques to visualize electromagnetic waves through an installation of luminous foil speakers enhanced with robotics and AI. A prototype will be showcased at the SWPK Art Foundation in New York during the expo Symbiosis: Art in the Age of AI.

The exhibition Symbiosis: Art in the Age of AI is a platform for dialogue and exploration. Through this show, we aim to develop a deeper understanding of the symbiotic relationship between humans and machines, and demonstrate the wide range of possibilities for using AI in art. As opposed to only focusing on the currently popular type of AI technology (i.e., “generative AI”), we want to present a more broad conceptual and aesthetic landscape of AI arts.
The exhibition features works by Alexandra Dementieva, Anna Frants, Petermfriess, Aernoudt Jacobs, Eunsu Kang, William Latham, Lev Manovich, and Koen Theys. 

Aernoudt Jacobs
SWPK Gallery

Aquaphoneia (2016) by Navid Navab

This alchemical installation features a floating horn that echoes the ghost of Edison’s machine. But unlike early recording, herding sound energy to etch pressure patterns in solid matter, this odd assemblage transmutes voice into water and water into air. 

Disembodied voices abandon their sources to cross the event horizon of the horn. Estranged, the schizo-phone falls into the narrow depths of the bell, squeezed into spatiotemporal infinity, calcinated, liquified and released. The aqueous voice then flows into three alchemical chambers where inner time is surrendered to the tempi of matter: unbound, yet lucid and sound. 

Navid Navab
798 CUBE

Phantom Vision uses the latest advances in science and technology to provide insights into brainwave patterns, dreams visualized by artificial intelligence, nature's hidden communication networks, and layers of our reality that go beyond the limits of everyday perception through the works, interactive installations and ever-changing projections of more than 35 international and Hungarian artists.

"If we can capture the rippling of a lake, can we also capture howling wind and billowing fog using digital art? David Bowen’s sculptures capture a fleeting moment in the ever-changing pulse of water waves, freezing it in space and time. Using a CNC router, the artist transforms the dynamic, fluid movement of water into a static, three-dimensional form, paradoxically capturing the constant flux of nature. The works encourage the viewer to reflect on the futility of artistic efforts to capture the essence of ephemeral natural phenomena and transform them into an artistic experience by digitally capturing a single moment of infinite wave motion. The intricate, minute details and undulating surface of the sculpture serve as a tangible imprint of the power of water and the complexity of wave motion, juxtaposing the ephemeral with the permanent. The precise geographical coordinates in the title refer to Lake Superior in North America and associate these frozen waves with a specific location, further emphasizing the tension between the universal nature of water movement and the singularity of a single moment in time and space. The sculptures exemplify the artist’s broader artistic practice, which offers unique perspectives on the relationship between nature, technology and human perception." Barnabás Bencsik

46°41'58.365" lat. -91°59'49.0128" long. @ 30m refers to the source location where the water surface data was collected for this series. An autonomous aerial vehicle hovering 30 meters above Lake Superior captured still images of the water’s surface. 
For this series of five, the vehicle was deployed to the same location on different days and in different weather conditions. The collected images were converted into three-dimensional models using open source software.
The models were then carved with a CNC router into a series of clear acrylic cylinders. This process captured the dynamic movements of the waves and ripples from a specific time and location and suspended this ever-changing water pattern into a static transparent form. 

David Bowen
Light Art Museum Budapest

the two

is it possible for robots to fall in love?

This installation by David Bowen consists of two identical robotic arms with cameras connected to two identical computers. Each computer is running a custom deep neural network that is trained to recognize the other robot. Using their cameras, the robots attempt to find and track each other as they move independently. Playfully dancing, the robots at times are attracted to each other. While at other times they seem repelled by their mate. Tension increases as they almost touch only to quickly pull away. If one of the robots does not see the other it will go to a resting position briefly before it begins to look for its counterpart again. When a robot positively identifies it’s mate a given number of times, the network is re-re-trained based on the new data. Through this continual training and re-training, the robots conceivably increasing their proficiency at recognizing and finding one another. In this way, as they lock onto each other’s loving gaze the robots become more and more familiar with their mates.

David Bowen
the two

Transformation of a World War II bunker located at the end of a 200 meter long pier in Tromsø, north Norway.  Below a project room will host interventions and discussions on urban development and nature conservation. On top a 5,6 m dome will be constructed with reclaimed materials, and will offer a panoramic view on the sea, the city and the sky. Completion of the dome September 2025. 

With support of KORO, Tromsø Municipality, Sparebankstiftelsen

Lawrence Malstaf
Follow Tromsø Observatorium on Instagram

Symfonie Orkest Vlaanderen, Kristiina Poska, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir & Soloist Lore Binon with Ensemble Revue Blanche

Annelies Van Parys tells a story about the relationship between the individual and the masses. How does that group dynamic of brotherhood that Beethoven so longed for work? The libretto of the work is by Gaea Schoeters.

Annelies Van Parys
Dates & Tickets

DARK is a new performance by Kris Verdonck / A Two Dogs Company about artificial intelligence and artificial presence.  In this production Verdonck continues his exploration of the tension between presence and absence, real and fake, human and technology, and all this in times of AI. 

Mustaf Ahmeti and Jeroen Van der Ven are the performers for this piece that consists of three parts: DARK, ACT #2 and BRASS #2. Live and digital bodies and voices alternate, to the point where they are difficult to distinguish. In the theatre space, DARK examines that other black box: the space behind the computer or smartphone screen and the algorithms and artificial intelligence behind all kinds of social media and chatbots. A performer surrounded by glass panels manipulates the screens, disappears, reappears and seems to want to draw the audience into their space.

By means of artificial intelligence, ACT #2 continues the work Verdonck and actor Johan Leysen (1950-2023) did on Samuel Beckett. A voice speaks the thirteenth and final part Beckett’s Texts for nothing, alone in the darkness as blankets rise and fall like ghosts moving across the stage. In BRASS #2, music resounds from three sousaphones, but the source of the sounds is indeterminate in this experiment with artificial presence.

What bodies and forms of life are to be found “behind” our screens and apps? And what impact do those screens and digital entities have on our bodies, our senses, our sense of reality? Like the human performers, the objects in this performance have an ambiguous status. Are they controlled by the performers or vice versa, or do they move autonomously? Everything seems interconnected and the spectator too will have to reconsider their point of view in this haunting world in which the concept of reality is called into question.

14/4 - 20:30 - 15/4 - 20:30 - 16/4 - 15:00 & 19:30 

Kris Verdonck / A Two Dogs Company
Festival TROUBLE #13