Current Events

Moving Image Perspectives

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

Coinciding with its 9th anniversary, ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY is delighted to announce the launch of its new digital programme Illuminated: Moving Image Perspectives, which will take place over the course of a year, and elaborates on the gallery’s expertise in moving image and reaffirms its ongoing commitment to this field.

On a weekly basis, Illuminated will offer unique insights into a new media artist using film, video animation, as well as their latest technological explorations, including blockchain and advanced technologies such as AI. This project aims to showcase and contextualise diverse digital art practices, while introducing international artists and their distinctive approaches to the gallery’s audience.

The online streams will be augmented by physical presentations of digital artworks in a private home setting at the gallery founder’s loft in Shoreditch. These installations will be accompanied by regular, invitation-only dinners and carefully curated exclusive viewings for art professionals, fostering deeper connections between artists, collectors, journalists, and museum curators.

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.

Instruments of Surveillance

21. September 2024 – 2. May 2025
Group Show, National Communications Museum, Hawthorn, Melbourne

As the race to create an artificial general intelligence (AGI) accelerates, questions of surveillance are more important than ever. Is it human or machine? And how can people equip themselves with the tools and knowledge they need to navigate technological futures?

Instruments of Surveillance grounds an age-old and contentious topic in the human and the everyday. From government spooks, data-extraction and activism through to generative AI, this exhibition unravels the interface between human and machine, inviting audiences to unpack the technologies that people use to surveil and their role in it.

Interact with a robotic commission by Louis-Philippe Demers. See an original WWII Enigma Machine, along with wiretaps and prototypes from the Australian Federal Police. Engage with commissions by Leah Heiss and Emma Luke, Kate Crawford, Aram Bartholl and Weniki Hensch among others.

This exhibition is curated by Jemimah Widdicombe (NCM) in collaboration with Dr. Tyne Sumner, current ARC DECRA fellow at the Australian National University.

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Upcoming Events

Are we there yet?

14. February – 16. May 2025
Group Show, Nome gallery, Berlin

Recent Events

Graphic Matters

29. November 2024
Talk, TURF festival, Breda

On Friday 29 November 2024, we are organising an inspiring afternoon for creative makers and tech enthusiasts together with TURF. During Current Characters IV: Wired Wonders , attendees and speakers will discuss the possibilities and ethical challenges of technology in art and design.

The new event TURF highlights electronic music, art, culture and tech. On Friday 29 November during Characters IV: Wired Wonders , three idiosyncratic makers Aram Bartholl (DE), SMACK(NL) and Roos Groothuizen (NL) present their work and share their views on the role of technology in art and autonomous design. They are known for their critical and social engagement. Wired Wonders promises to be a fascinating mix of inspiration and reflection, challenging attendees to think about the impact of technological innovations on the creative process.

Breda-based collective SMACK highlights the ethical dimensions of digital culture, critically visualising the seductions of technology and algorithms; Aram Bartholl explores the boundary between the digital and physical worlds, with critical installations that make technology tangible in the public domain; and Roos Groothuizen is known for her work on digital freedom and privacy, using technology as an activist tool to create awareness about surveillance and control.

Total Screen Time

21. November 2024
Curatorial, Ithakis 28, Kypseli-Athens, Athens


Total Screen Time is a
one night group exhibition on phones! All participating artists will bring a phone with their artwork on it, which will be mounted on the walls of the exhibition space. The idea behind the show is that the audience gets to peep through the hole of the artist’s phones to immerse into the artworks. LET’S BRAINROT TOGETHER! 🧠 In a collective and liberating moment, we also ask the artists  to share their weekly screen time prior to the opening. WE ARE ALL GETTING EXPOSED LOL 🎀

participating artists:
Andreas Angelidakis, Margarita Athanasiou, Cory Arcangel, James Bridle, Constant Dullaart, Chioma Ebinama, Evoulix, Fruitgillette, Agape Harmani, Hristos Hantzis, Kathrin Hunze, 1g.00_0 (Dirk Paesmans), Karl Heinz Jeron, Anna Kalozoumi, Kakia Konstantinaki, Markella Ksilogiannopoulou, Leefwerk, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Lucile Littot, Miltos Manetas, Maria Mavropoulou, Anastasis-Panagis Meletis, Tokisato Mitsuru, Eva Papamargariti, Angelo Plessas, Captain Stavros, Kosts Stafylakis, Mandy Stergiou, Alexandros Touramanis, Connor Willumsen

curated by:
Aram Bartholl, Socrates Stamatatos & Theo Triantafyllidis

curatorial statement:
Our algorithmic life has been reduced to isolation and hostility the last few years. Alone in our echo chamber we are brain rotting endlessly, while each specific algorithm is surveilling our every move and gatekeeping the process of our actions. To quote the famous philosopher and poet, Britney Spears:

“What am I to do with my life?
How am I supposed to know what’s right?
I can’t help the way I feel
But my life has been so overprotected
I tell ’em what I like, what I want, and what I don’t
But every time I do, I stand corrected
Things that I’ve been told, I can’t believe
What I hear about the world, I realize I’m overprotected.”

Meanwhile, everyone seems to be obsessed with their screen time. Some are trying to downsize it, some are accepting their ‘terminally online’ identity, some perceive it as a competition, and some—as always, simply don’t care. Enough with the heavy! We invited thirty artists to present digital works through their own personal devices, extending an intimate invitation for audiences to peer through the artist’s screen—a portal into their unique, brainrot-filled worlds. From personal and collective imagery to camp, critical takes on surveillance, viral memes, and wholesome escapism—artworks from every corner of the digital psyche are on display. This one night exhibition is about connecting, sharing in the joy of deep-frying our brains, rather than in isolation. And we think THAT’S HOT!

Kill Your Phone (with style!)

16. November 2024
Workshop, Super Duper Store, Athens

KILLYOURPHONE.COM is an open workshop format. Participants are invited to make their own signal blocking phone pouch.📶 In the pouch the phone can’t send or receive any signals. It is dead! 📵This time we are adding a cute twist 🥰 your phone is going down with style 💖

Join @arambartholl & @socratesstamatatos on 16.11.2024 from 12:00-17:00 at our beloved @super_duper_wow 🎀

Blog Archive for Tag: hamburg

Face the Face – Rundgang

February 19, 2020

Student works of the class “Face the Face” on view at Rundgang Armgartstrasse, HAW Hamburg, Jan 29th – Feb 1st 2020

WiSe 2019/20 Bachelor
Kunst mit Schwerpunkt digitale Medien
Prof. ARAM BARTHOL

Das Gesicht steht im Zentrum der menschlichen Kommunikation, emotionale Ausdrücke und Grimassen finden weltweite universell übereinstimmung. Menschen sind von Natur aus darauf trainiert Gesichter besonders gut zu erkennen und sie zu erinnern. Mit einer Masken das Gesicht zu verdecken, sich unkenntlich zu machen oder in eine andere Rolle zu schlüpfen entspricht einer uralten Tradition menschlicher Kultur. Das Portrait, früher nur den Reichen als Gemälde vorbehalten wurde durch die Photographie ein Allgemeingut.

In Zeiten digitaler Kommunikation hat sich die Rolle des Gesichts und dessen Abbild noch einmal besonders verstärkt. Heute tragen fast alle Menschen ein Kamera-Smartphone mit sich herum. Soziale Netzwerke und das allgegenwärtige Selfie transferiert das ‚Ich‘ auf eine weitere Stufe der digitalen Abstraktion. Virtuelle Masken, Facetune Überbeauty und endlose Social Feeds ermöglichen ganz neue Perspektiven bei der Formung des eigenen Körpers als digitales alter Ego. Andererseits Spielt die automatisierte Erkennung von Gesichtern durch Computer und Software eine immer stärkere Rolle. Angefangen bei der Unlock-Funktion im Telefon, oder automatischer Erkennung von Freunden im Fotoalbum bis hin zu riesigen Datenbanken der Internetunternehmen und staatlichen Organe sind Fotos von Gesichtern und deren Zuordnung zu Identitäten nicht mehr wegzudenken. Zunehmende Kontrolle und Gesichtserkennung im Öffentlichen Raum sind hierbei aktuell wichtige Themen in der öffentlichen Diskussion.

Die Studierenden des Kurses Face The Face haben sich mit all diesen Themen und Fragen detailliert auseinandergesetzt. Es sind unterschiedlichste Projekte in Form von Videos, Animationen, Facefilter aber auch Skulpturen, Performance, Texte oder Photographien entstanden.

All pictures -> https://www.flickr.com/photos/bartholl/albums/72157713172070588

Speculative Privacy: Practical and impractical things you can do to your phone

August 24, 2016

“Speculative Privacy: Practical and impractical things you can do to your phone” is a lecture-workshop-performance format I presented at the Datapolitics conference track during the annual International Summer festival, Kampnagel, Hamburg on August 20th.
First the audience got stickers on their smart phone cameras at the entrance (in true Berghain manner) and then was instructed to do a few tests and look up settings on their devices during the talk. In the second half of the presentation everyone was invited to the stage to test different tools and materials on their phones while we kept discussing todays privacy questions. Some of the ‘mini workshops’ are useful others don’t really make sense but offer a strong therapeutic moment to ‘grill’ your mobile phone in a non destructive way.  You always wanted to flush your phone in the toilet or bury it in cement? This is your chance! Have it vacuumed in a plastic bag and dip it in paint or through it in other actions!
All slides of the talk and related links here! : http://datenform.de/talks/kampnagel/
Aram Bartholl, 2016
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…more pictures on flickr!!


How to cement in your phone in a non-destructive way!
Aram Bartholl: Speculative Privacy
Aram Bartholl ist Konzept- und Medienkünstler. Im Mittelpunkt seines Interesses steht die kritische Auseinandersetzung mit der zunehmenden Digitalisierung unseres Alltags. In seinen oft humorvollen Arbeiten überführt er Items aus der Netzwelt ins Analoge, um bspw. die Allgegenwärtigkeit von Internetunternehmen wie Google sichtbar zu machen. In seinem performativen Workshop TRANSPARENCY zeigt er welche digitalen Spuren bei der Benutzung von Smartphones entstehen und welche Möglichkeiten es gibt, diese zu verwischen.
Thanks to the Kampnagel team for making all this possible!
http://www.kampnagel.de/de/programm/datapolitics/
20. August 2016, 18:00 – 19:30 (Halle P1)
Kampnagel, Hamburg