Current Events

Zuses Früchte

12. June – 10. July 2025
Group Show, Hofgrün, Berlin

Outdoor exhibition in the yard where Konrad Zuse did built his first computer.

with:  Aram Bartholl, Florian Bettsteller, Per Christian Brown, Freda Heyden, Mathias Hornung, Sebastian Kusenberg, Anna Luebben, Linou Meyer, Jason Reizner, Cyrill Tobias, Darko Velazquez

Hofgrün,
Methfesselstr. 10-12
10965 Berlin

Moving Image Perspectives

22. December 2024 – 30. June 2025
Solo Show, Annka Kultys Gallery, London

ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY is pleased to present Greetings From Germany! (2024), a single-channel video by German artist Aram Bartholl, a poignant critique of police activities on the streets of Berlin, underscoring the potential of art to confront and illuminate complex truths. This presentation is part of Illuminated: Moving Image Perspectives, the gallery digital programme, which will take place over the course of a year, and offer unique insights into new media artists using film, video animation, as well as their latest technological explorations, including blockchain and advanced technologies such as AI.

Aram Bartholl’s, video Greetings from Germany! (2024), uses the technology of AI as a space of opportunities to explore disturbing policies around modern urban policing. The ironic title belies a serious underlying message about police activity on the streets of Berlin — a reminder that art can be a powerful tool to consider truth more fully.

For this work Bartholl chose a single image from a recording of an anti-war demonstration in Berlin where police were involved. Using this single frame, Greetings from Germany! presents six alternative realities generated by different AI video systems. The unfolding events are unsettling, playing with notions of certainty. It is difficult to know precisely what is happening as figures morph into one another. Lines are blurred between police, demonstrators and bystanders and precisely what is happening – one figure appears to dance. As the video is shot from the point of view of the audience, (reminiscent of smartphone streaming), the work gives the impression of the viewer being a witness to events unfolding. This creates a sense of immediacy, yet questions of veracity soon arise. The use of a variety of video generators shows how each of these commercial AI models give a slightly different angle to the ambiguous narrative. Shockingly, however, in the final shot, the ambiguity disappears as the viewer is confronted by a distressing clip of found footage of the incident.

This work is about holding a mirror to society, making visible aspects of public policy that might be easily overlooked or disregarded. By using one of the major tools of contemporary society – AI, Bartholl here encourages the viewer to look again, reconsider definitions of what constitutes the real, and catalyse conversations around critical issues.

Grand Snail Tour

26. September 2024 – 29. August 2025
Group Show, Urbane Künste Ruhr, Xanten Ruhrgebiet

What is the Ruhr area? An exciting metropolitan region centred around the major cities of Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg? Or a collection of scattered towns and villages from Alpen to Xanten? Or both? Does it consist of tranquil river landscapes along the Ruhr, Emscher and Lippe or is it hopelessly damaged by the scars of heavy industry? Ruhrpott, example of transformation, poverty zone – how can art open up, change and enrich this diverse region?

Urbane Künste Ruhr wants to find out and is launching the Grand Snail Tour in autumn, an artistic-performative journey through all 53 cities in the Ruhr region. Because this is an ambitious endeavour and Urbane Künste Ruhr has set itself the goal of getting to know local players, forming bonds and establishing sustainable networks, this is a three-year project.

Kick-off Grand Snail Tour in Xanten
Urbane Künste Ruhr is launching the Grand Snail Tour in autumn, an artistic-performative journey through all 53 cities in the Ruhr area. The kick-off event will take place on 26.9. in Xanten.

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Upcoming Events

material messenger

29. June – 14. September 2025
Group Show, RAUM SCHROTH im Museum Wilhelm Morgner, Soest

The exhibition at RAUM SCHROTH presents international works and artistic concepts that focus on the material itself and explore its elementary nature, characteristics and behaviour. These reflections include, in particular, possibilities of the material that run counter to customary uses, as well as surprising properties that the material does not usually display. The basic material is extremely diverse, ranging from solid substances that are also used to produce goods, to vegetable and ephemeral elements – the reference to the surrounding space, to change and transience is inextricably linked to the concept of material. This opens up the broad field of meanings that are gained in the artistic transformation of the material and which in turn interweave it with existential, everyday and social experiences and concepts.

material messenger is curated by berlin-based artist Elisabeth Sonneck and Juliane Rogge, curator at Stiftung Konzeptuelle Kunst (Conceptual Art Foundation). A programme of musical performances, lectures and talks is being planned to accompany the exhibition.

From Cosmos to Commons: Between Stars and Signals

21. June – 17. August 2025
Group Show, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Hamburg

Participating artists: Aram Bartholl, Zach Blas, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Charles & Ray Eames, Sasha Litvintseva & Beny Wagner, Timo Nasseri, Norbert Pape & Simon Speiser, Trevor Paglen, Katie Paterson, Marie Pietsch, Agnieszka Polska, Jana Schumacher, Hoda Tawakol.

How do we navigate a world in which our actions have a planetary impact? In our post-global era, we cannot see ourselves merely as inhabitants of the Earth. Essentially, we are geological actors whose economic, ecological and political decisions leave profound marks on the globe. From this perspective, the Earth can be viewed as a dynamic system within a much larger cosmic structure.

The group exhibition Between Stars and Signals at the Kunsthaus Hamburg focuses on the bigger picture and spans an arc from humanity’s early understanding of the world and its orientation on the stars all the way to the planetary paradigm and modern technologies such as GPS. The participating artists have engaged in the topic of physical movement through space and time along with its philosophical and social implication. The works on view, spanning video, wall and spatial installations, reflect complex relationships between humans, nature and the cosmos – and make us think. For the question remains whether the digital transformation will lead to a deeper cosmic consciousness or whether it will distance us even further from our immediate experience of the world.

From the Cosmos to the Commons marks the beginning of the five-year programme conceived by City Curator Joanna Warsza. In 2025, it includes exhibitions at the Planetarium Hamburg, Stadtpark, the Kunsthaus Hamburg and a symposium at the Warburg Haus. Since 2024, the project City Curator Hamburg has been hosted by Kunsthaus Hamburg.

Curated by Anna Nowak

Echokammer

20. – 22. June 2025
Group Show, Fasskeller, Berlin

mit: Aram Bartholl, Hannah Hallermann, Verena Issel, Anne Mundo, Finja Sander, Moritz Stumm / Stefan Neuberger,Philip Topolovac, Viron Erol Vert
kuratiert von Dirk Teschner

Der Ursprung des Begriffs Echokammer findet sich in der analogen Tontechnik als architektonischer Bestandteil eines Tonstudios und dient der Erzeugung oder Verstärkung des Halls. Ein starker Hall (Nachhall) entsteht mit acht oder mehr Sekunden in Kirchen. Echo ist ein verstärkter Nachhall mit darüber hinausgehenden Zeiten.

Außerhalb von Ton und Hall verweist der Begriff Echokammer auf einen Raum, in dem Aussagen verstärkt und Störgeräusche, etwa anders lautende Meinungen, geschluckt werden. Der Großteil der Menschen neigt dazu, sich mit Gleichgesinnten zu umgeben, um sich gegenseitig in einem geschlossenen Raum in der eigenen Position zu verstärken. In einer Echokammer rezipieren Mediennutzer hauptsächlich Informationen, die ihre eigenen Ansichten unterstützen. Mit Argumenten, die ihre Meinung in Frage stellen, setzen sie sich dagegen kaum auseinander. Dadurch entstehen geschlossene Netzwerke. Die Folge ist eine Verschärfung der politischen Debatte, ohne Hall ins fremde Tal. Die Suche nach einem gemeinsamen Klang kann aber nur außerhalb der engen Kammern gelingen.

Recent Events

Loops Series

22. May 2025
Talk, New Practice in Art and Technology, MA Design & Computation TU Berlin, Berlin

Loops is the public event series of New Practice in cooperation with the Berlin University Alliance exploring current questions facing our society at the intersection of art, science and technology in a unique discursive format. Afterwards, the Bar provides a space for exchange between guests, researchers, students and the public.

This session welcomes Aram Bartholl, a seminal voice in contemporary media art whose work interrogates the blurred threshold between digital systems and physical life. Merging conceptual art, hacker culture, and urban intervention, Bartholl’s installations and performances expose the hidden infrastructures of the internet while playfully reanimating digital symbols into everyday public space.

Jahrestagung Intervenierende Künste

9. – 10. May 2025
Talk, Hau 2, Berlin

Jahrestagung 2025 | Digital Interventions. Bodies, Infrastructures, Politics
09.05.2025 – 10.05.2025

Veranstaltung in englischer Lautsprache | Eintritt frei | Anmeldung erforderlich | teilweise barrierefreier Zugang: Bedarfe bitte bei Anmeldung angeben
Ob wir online sind oder nicht, es gibt kein Außerhalb des Digitalen. Das Digitale ist immer schon in uns und in unserer alltäglichen Umgebung eingewoben. Unsere Körper, Infrastrukturen und Politiken sind grundlegend mit digitalen Technologien und Praktiken verflochten. Die Tagung Digital Interventionsuntersucht die Möglichkeitsräume künstlerischer Praktiken, die darauf abzielen, emanzipatorische Räume des Digitalen zu schaffen und zu sichern oder die vielfältigen Formen von digitaler Überwachung, Ausbeutung und Unterdrückung herauszufordern. An der Schnittstelle von Kunst, Aktivismus und Hacking wird auf der Tagung die konkrete Materialität und Verkörperung des Digitalen als Ort und Mittel digitaler Interventionen analysiert.

Der Begriff „digitale Interventionen“ selbst offenbart dabei grundlegende und unlösbare Widersprüche. Denn die digitale Sphäre ist ein Raum der Zuflucht und des Widerstands, in dem Anonymität und vertrauliche Kommunikation vor Gewalt schützen. Zugleich ist der digitale Raum massiver Überwachung, Trolling und Desinformation ausgesetzt, die den Raum politischer Meinungsäußerung kapern und zersetzen. Wenn soziale Medien von der Aufmerksamkeitsökonomie bestimmt sind, das Internet vom Plattformkapitalismus strukturiert und der politische Diskurs durch Algorithmen untergraben sind, welche Praktiken und Bruchstellen bieten sich Kunstschaffenden und Aktivist*innen, um in diese Entwicklungen zu intervenieren und sie zu hinterfragen? Wann kann Komplizenschaft in Kritik umschlagen?

Mit dem Fokus auf Körper, Infrastrukturen und Politik, folgen wir der Hypothese, dass es eine zentrale Aufgabe der Künste ist, dysfunktionale Prozesse, falsche Kategorien und ideologische Reduktionen sowie die Komplizenschaft von Plattformen und Onlinediensten mit der Staatsmacht und dem militärisch-industriellen Komplex sichtbar zu machen, zu kritisieren und zu entwirren.

Die Jahrestagung 2025 des SFB Intervenierende Künste wird organisiert von der Arbeitsgruppe „Digitaler Aktivismus“ in Kooperation mit dem HAU Hebbel am Ufer.

Programm:

Freitag, 9. Mai 2025
HAU 2
18:00 – 18.30 Begrüßung/Einführung
Sarah Reimann (HAU Hebbel am Ufer)
Karin Gludovatz (Sprecherin SFB 1512)
Simon Teune und Iryna Kovalenko (Tagungsorganisation SFB 1512)

18:30 – 19:45 Keynote
Aria Dean: Labor, Art, and the Vernacular Aesthetic Online
Introduction: Brigitte WeingartWechsel ins HAU 3

21:00 – 21:45 Performance
Claudix Vanesix: Non-Fuckable Tokens (NFTs)
21:45 – 22:30 Artist Talk mit Claudix VanesixFür den Besuch der Abendveranstaltung von Claudix Vanesix: Non-Fuckable Tokens (NFTs) ist der Kauf einer Eintrittskarte erforderlich.

Samstag, 10. Mai 2025
HAU 209:30 – 10.00 Einführung
Florian Schlittgen und Naomi Boyce (Tagungsorganisation SFB 1512)10:00 – 11:00 Keynote
Brigitte Weingart: The (Micro-)Politics of Meme Culture
Introduction: Matthias Warstat

11:00 – 11:15 Pause

11:15 – 12:30 Roundtable
Aram Bartholl, Jean Peters und Şirin Fulya Erensoy: Art Challenging Digital Repression
Facilitation: Simon Teune

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch Break and Workshop
Kill Your Phone mit Aram Bartholl (Workshop 1) ODER Shrink Your Files mit Matthias Grotkopp (Workshop 2)14:00 – 15:15 Roundtable
Pekka Kallioniemi und Muriel Fischer: Desinformation (and) War
Facilitation: Florian Schlittgen und Iryna Kovalenko

15:15 – 15:45 Pause

15:45 – 16:45 Lecture Performance
Azadeh Ganjeh: Not a Body for Burial
Introduction: Matthias Grotkopp16:45 – 17:00 Pause

17:00 – 18:00 Keynote
Joana Moll: Follow the Body: Materiality and Resistance in the Age of Data Extraction
Introduction: Matthias Grotkopp18:00 – 19:00 Abschlussdiskussion
Facilitation: Margarita Tsomou19:00 – 20:30 Pause (Abendessen nicht inklusive)

 

Critical Art vs. Prank Politics – creative tactics for post-moral paradigms

8. May 2025
Talk, hosted by V2 Lab, Online

Online-symposium, Thursday 8 May 2025, 15:00-17:30 CET, organized by Dani Ploeger

Contributors:
Aram Bartholl, Francis Hunger, Nora Nora O’Murchú, Dani Ploeger, Hito Steyerl, Florian Weigl

In February, Benjamin Netanyahu presented a gold plated pager device to Donald Trump, in reference of last year’s Mossad attack on suspected Hezbollah members, using explosive pagers. Not only did this gift mark another step in a seemingly escalating sequence of official glorifications of acts of state-sanctioned violence that are legally questionable at best (the United Nations Human Rights Office denounced the attack as a “terrifying violation of international law”). Its form also suggests that representatives of nation states in the Global North are shifting their previous focus on keeping up the appearances of an enlightened moral high-ground towards a strategy of prank-like utterances that blatantly display a politics of obscene violence that accompanies globalized power.

The hyperbolic representation and aestheticization of political transgression to expose the perverse implications and undercurrents of hegemonic power have long been a prominent tactic in critical art  practices. Now that this approach has been co-opted by the representatives of power themselves, thus normalizing the public display of violent excesses, what artistic and critical tactics – if any – might still have the potential to raise moral concerns and motivate resistance?

Critical Art vs. Prank Politics is a one-day online symposium organized by Dani Ploeger, Professor of Performance and Technology at the University of Music and Theatre Munich in collaboration with  V2_Lab for the unstable media.

GALLERY SURFING – chat is this real

29. April 2025
Workshop, panke.gallery, Berlin

Join us for a live Gallery Surfing session at panke.gallery with NYC-based net artist Maya Manand Berlin-based media and concept artist Aram Bartholl as they browse the web together. The artists will talk about their practices, showcase current projects, surf their favorite websites, and share their open tabs and personal desktops.

In their works, Maya and Aram explore online economies, social media, and current technologies, as well as their aesthetic, personal and societal implications. Having participated in the early developments of AI applications – from glitchy GAN-generated animations, random text generators, and face filters to the current AI models that generate sophisticated videos from single images – Aram and Maya share the experiences they have gained by using these tools and reflect on the effects they’ve had on their own artistic practices, as well as the online and offline environments they inhabit.

As both Maya and Aram have been at the forefront of bringing net art into physical spaces, they will also share insights into the curatorial formats they have developed: from Aram’s speed showsand one-night group exhibitions on phones – one of which recently happened at panke.gallery – to Maya’s sacred screenshots, taken from the phones of 20 artists and exhibited at her project space HEART in NYC.
At panke.gallery, both artists will share the space and their screens.

Come surf the net with us!
…and don’t forget to visit the gift shop on your way out.

Blog Archive for Tag: 12v

12V Guard Diary

December 1, 2017


This tablet was part of the installation “12V” at Skulptur Projekte Münster 2017 last summer. It was used to show vistors the offline PDF data base from the router on the TV tower.  The guards who had to take care of the work and explained to visitors everything also started to use it on their own initiative as a video / picture log. This became a beautiful summary of a summer full of work,  joy, desperation; an unfiltered view of the site specific art work, visitors, neighborhood kids and nature with cable and stove. Thanks to all of you who endured the long hours at this crazy location out of Münster. ;))
ARAM

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3V / 5V / 12V

August 14, 2017

Skulptur Projekte Münster 2017
10.6. – 1.10.2017
I am showing three new works at Skulptur Projekte Münster this summer.  Thermo generators which convert the heat of the fire directly into electricity play a central roll in these site specific works. Fire, in fact the first human technology serves as a power source for modern electronics and as catalyst for human communication. It was very much fun developing these new works for Münster in the past couple years. Skulptur Projekte  has a faboulus team! I want to thank everyone in the production and the curatorial team very much! Please go and see the show. It is very good! Still up till 1st of October.
Aram Bartholl, 2017

3V

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3 V
Material: Aluminium, acrylic glass, thermoelectric generator, electronics, LEDs, tea candles, steel chain
The otherwise closed pedestrian tunnel which leads to the castle Münster is open during Skulptur Projekte. Five candle powered LED chandeliers light up the dark concrete tunnel. Each chandeliers consists of ten LED tea candle reading lamps mounted on an aluminum ring. With help of the thermoelectric effect the
heat of the candles is converted directly into 3V electricity to power the LED lamps. The bright and cold LED light contrasts the warmth flickr of the classic candle. Twice a day (every five hours) the guard is replacing the burned down candles.

 5V

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5 V
Material: Campfire, wood, steel, thermoelectric generator, cables, electronics

Skulptur Projekte visitors are invited to charge their phone at a bonfire at the Pumpenhaus Münster. In the tradition of backing bread on a stick (Germany) or holding a sausage over a camp fire these custom made charger sticks produce 5V electricity, enough to charge the common smart phone. With help of the thermoelectric effect the heat of the fire is directly converted into electricity. As long as the thermo generator attached to the top of the stick is exposed to the flames it generates power. The user can attach his/her phone to the stick which is equipped with multi plug charging cable. Visitors gather around the warmth fire, charge their phones and have a chat.

 12 V

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12 V
Material: router, stove, thermoelectric generator, cable, electronics, software, database
A standard home router is hanging in a parasitical way right next to commercial mobile phone antennas from the Münster TV tower. Vistors are invited to connect to this router with their phones. The router serves no Internet connectino but offers a large database of PDF tutorials on ‘How to live an offline life’. A thermo generator sitting on a small camping stove next to the playground provides 12 volt electricity to power the router which is connected through a 70 meter long orange cable. While the Telekom maintains one of its threet large data centers right next to the TV tower the site specific installation 12V is totally independet from powerlines or Internet connection. User can download and also upload files. Their connection cannot be traced or monitored by 3rd parties on the Internet. In its retro appearance, as a building for long range TV broadcast before the Internet the tower becomes a historic sculpture in itself.
 
SP17-thumbs
Picture set flickr.com/photos/bartholl/sets/72157684555214574/
 
Skulptur Projekte catalog text
Aram Bartholl (* 1972 Bremen; lives in Berlin) deals with the possibilities and effects of increasing digitalization in his role as an installation and performance artist. Since the early 2000s he has been actively involved in the production of a digital public sphere—anonymity, open source, and hacking are the key buzzwords of this fledgling Internet generation. In 2010, as part of the project Dead Drops, he showed how conventional USB drives can be cemented into walls as dead letterboxes, thus initiating an on-going international wave of similar interventions. The drives allow data to be exchanged in the urban space without being stored and evaluated by algorithms on the Internet. Although it is normal for large amounts of data to be stored and sent on the Internet and for USB drives to be passed from hand to hand on a private basis, by publicly installing them in an urban setting, he creates disturbing situations for people and—in light of what is already happening and what might happen on any given day—fuels people’s anxieties.
Bartholl’s installations in Münster are all based on thermoelectric devices that directly transform fire—the primeval medium of communication—into electrical energy. At the same time, the artist alludes to three construction projects that have played a key role in Münster’s urban development: the building of the palace (1767) and the canal-water pumping station (1901) and the installation of a DVB-T-antenna (2007) on top of the telecommunications tower. In the underground passageway leading to the palace square, Bartholl has hung up five chandeliers, each consisting of ten thermoelectric LED reading lamps powered by tea candles. In the event of an emergency they could serve to illuminate a shelter. At Münster’s Theater im Pumpenhaus, Bartholl has provided devices for charging mobile phones: visitors can hold sticks—equipped with generators—in a campfire to charge their phone batteries. On the playground at the base of the telecommunications tower Bartholl has set up a small stove, equipped with a thermoelectric generator that provides electricity to the router on the tower without using the Internet. Visitors can log into an offline database via Wi-Fi to download instructions for living without the Internet and upload their own files.
Bartholl’s playful and experimental work contributes to the demystification of technology. It prompts critical, self-determined, and independent interaction with the possibilities of digital networking and is based on an idea closely associated with technē: the arts are combined with craftsmanship, manual dexterity, and self-reflection.
Nicola Torke, Skulptur Projekte
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INTERVIEW
Aram Bartholl with Vlado Velkov
V.V.: We can start the interview with the end. Your works in Münster are a kind of survival kit for post-apocalyptic conditions. Is this the new end: a day without internet?
For many people it’s a big drama if the internet goes down. Actually, it’s enough for the smartphone battery to get down to zero for panic to break out. We are dependent on devices and the internet to a great extend. If the internet were to completely go out for an extended period of time, all our infrastructure would collaps. What would it be like if there was no electricity and we had to charge our phones at a fire? Or we had to drive to a specific place in the city to get fresh data? Conditions like these are part of everyday life in other parts of the world.
V.V.: Post-digital art is frequently related to technical developments and their effects. But in your case, the focus is on people. What kind of encounters you except around the campfire?
How old are smartphones? It’s astonishing how natural it is for us to accept technological developments, along with all their side-effects, as the status quo. Social media change society and bring people closer, but they also estrange us. Charging a telephone at a campfire is an attempt to connect a very old, even archaic meeting place with our current world of communication. Work can activate devices, but, more importantly, it can reconnect people­ – not via an app, but through classic, direct contact. I expect exciting exchanges, new friendships, and much more.
V.V.:  You are one of the few artists who are consistently and actively exploring the digital shift in public spaces. What is the origin of this passion for public space?
My penchant for public space comes from my childhood in the 1970s, a politically dynamic period with manydemonstrations, parties on the streets, etc. Later I studied architecture and devoted a great deal of time to public space in all its complexity. For me, outdoor space offers much more in the way of emotions, stimuli, and possibilities than the classic white cube. Public space is always in motion; there are people, problems, the pulse of life. And I make an effort to to explore the evolution of public space through the interconnectivity and digitaliziation.
V.V.:  Is the internet a public space?
The internet isn’t a public space, even though we would like to believe it is. The news and social media platforms where we make our opinions known are 100 per cent private spaces belonging to publicly listed companies. We pay for our free use of these platforms with our data, which has been harvested by various nets and filters for some time now. My public space continues to be the city, with real people who need to prepare for all sorts of changes related to digitalization.
V.V.:  You displayed your first work of art at a Chaos Computer Club congress. Now you are an art professor, which people assume to be somewhat respectable, but you are now active in the team at the Hacker Congress. What attractions does this still have to offer?
I have been invited into a wide variety of contexts with my work. This crossover between art, internet, architecture, design, and technology has always influenced my work. I have been active at CCC events since the late 1990s, and have repeatedlyexperimented with new work and projects there. For me it is important to keep leaving behind art, reality, and the internet and question things from a new perspective.
V.V.:  Do you think it’s bold that the café where we are talking right now doesn’t have Wi-Fi?
It’s great! Nowadays there are many cafes that expressly advertise that they don’t have internet. It’s time to go offline
From the Skulptur Projekte Katalog 2017

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