Current Events

“Temporary Ferry” Wuhan Biennale

1. October 2026 – 30. May 2027

“Temporary Ferry” takes Wuhan—a “transit city” —as its conceptual starting point. Rooted in its geography as a crossroads connecting nine provinces, the city serves as a hub where the flow of people, goods, and information converges and radiates outward; the city, itself, is a vast temporary ferry. Drawing on this concept, the exhibition explores how people establish connections and preserve experiences in an increasingly fluid and uncertain present, while reexamining the significance of fleeting encounters. It does not seek to wallow in nostalgia, nor does it simplistically reduce mobility to migration and wandering. Instead, it views the “ferry landing” as a relational structure that is constantly being rebuilt: an adaptive wisdom that maintains order amid change and continuously generates renewal. Temporariness is not a flaw but a condition of its operation; it is only by engaging fully—even in the knowledge of transience—that truly meaningful encounters and exchanges are realized.

The exhibition consists of four non-linear sections, corresponding to four “moments of crossing” : generation, residence, sedimentation, and farewell. The first section, “Impromptu Pier,” focuses on lightweight, temporary, and mobile spatial structures. The constructions here do not seek to be sturdy or permanent, but rather engage in an ongoing dialogue with the environment; creators interpret space as a temporary interaction between the body and the site, establishing habitable temporary anchor points amid uncertainty. The emphasis lies not on the result but on the process— action is construction.

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Language code translation

24. September 2026 – 20. August 2027

Group Show, Le Cube Garges, Paris

In the exhibition D’autres voix · langage · code · traduction (Other Voices · Language · Code · Translation), visitors encounter a multitude of languages, alphabets, and dialects, born or transformed by the generativity or virality of new technologies. These include the ones we invented: computer languages (Python, Java…), the creative and political stakes of Unicode characters, which give all our writing systems a common code, and even esoteric programming languages. Not to mention how AIs are trained to communicate, which is far from straightforward. Machines are learners, but they need supervision. There are also the modes of communication of non-human living beings, such as the scent of plants, whose signals scientists and technologists are trying to analyze by modeling them. And finally, the new modes of communication, built around images, that are emerging from the Internet and social media: memes, emojis, Italian brainrot…
With new technologies, the means (and therefore the ways) of communicating are multiplying. Translation is becoming a central condition of our experience of the world. To translate no longer means only to move from one language to another, but to navigate constantly between forms of expression. The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote: “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world,” so much is our perception of reality shaped, in part, by the language we have at our disposal. The exhibition invites us to consider how, today, we are pushing back our own limits.

Grand Snail Tour

10. September – 11. October 2026

Group Show, Urbane Künste Ruhr, Hattingen

Artists Darsha Hewitt and Aram Bartholl transform the MÄCK Second second-hand store into an experimental laboratory for media archaeology and collective making through a series of workshops.The project takes the objects themselves as its starting point: discarded televisions, stereo systems, computers, furniture, and everyday items that tell stories of their previous lives while also carrying the potential for new futures.

Found objects from the MÄCK Second inventory are examined, modified, and recombined. Together, the participants develop a large-scale installation that reconfigures the store’s interior and transforms its inventory into an immersive landscape of sound, images, stories, and technological relics, accessible to the public during opening hours.

Situated between recycling, artistic research, and a speculative future workshop, the project creates a temporary space that invites visitors to explore the hidden potential of old things and to rediscover second-hand culture as a resource for new forms of living, making, and imagining together.

Upcoming Events

Transformative Materialien

3. November 2026

Talk, HAW Hamburg, Hamburg

Im Panel „Digitale und transformative Materialien“ widmen wir uns gemeinsam den verschiedenen Facetten und Annäherungen an das thematische Feld. Paneldiskussion mit: Linn Schröder, Pierre Pané-Farré, Tobias Zielony und Aram Bartholl.

BOOM CRASH CANDY CRUSH

28. October 2026 – 14. January 2027

Group Show, Santa Mònica, Barcelona

curated by Joana Moll

Hybride Räume

16. October 2026

Talk, feldfünf, Berlin

Das Panel bringt künstlerische, kuratorische und theoretische Perspektiven zusammen und diskutiert hybride Räume und die künstlerische Position als Orte der Übersetzung – zwischen Materialität und Code, zwischen Spiel und sozialem Raum, zwischen individueller Erfahrung und gemeinsamer Öffentlichkeit. Moderation: Nadine Kolodziey

Recent Events

Still Unstable

24. – 26. September 2026

Group Show, V2 Lab, Rotterdam

Still Unstable – 45 Years of V2_
For 45 years, V2_ has been a space where artists, researchers and technologists come together to question, explore and experiment with emerging technologies. To mark this anniversary, V2_ presents Still Unstable: a programme of exhibitions, talks, interviews and live performances exploring the hidden systems that shape technological innovation today.

Rather than looking back, Still Unstable looks ahead. In a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, algorithms and digital infrastructures, the programme asks what remains unseen: the labour, resources, ecologies and power structures behind contemporary technologies, and how artistic practice can make these visible.

Exhibition
24 September – 18 October 2026

The exhibition brings together works by Rosa Menkman, Aram Bartholl, Anna Ehrenstein, knowbotiq, Kaisa Molga, Morehshin Allahyari and more to be announced. Through installations, moving image and artistic research, the participating artists examine the infrastructures, relationships and systems that underpin today’s technological landscape.

Unstable Talks & Interviews
24–26 September 2026

Alongside the exhibition, Still Unstable presents three days of talks, artist talks and interviews reflecting on 45 years of media art and the challenges of contemporary technological culture.

Confirmed speakers are Andreas Broeckmann, Annet Dekker, Aram Bartholl, Anna Ehrenstein & Yara Makawei, and Marijn Bril. Interviews feature Joost Rekveld, Joana Chicau, Gökay Atabekand Rosa Menkman.

Self Storage

15. – 20. September 2026

Group Show, Espace Commines, Paris

We are made of memory, but memory itself is a fiction

The exhibition Self Storage investigates how individuals construct identity through personal and intimate recollections, as well as through the technical and social systems that shape their traces. Memory is not an objective recording: it is an assemblage, a selective construction built from both forgetting and persistence. A memory emerges within a space shaped by desire, loss, and reconstruction. Self Storage foregrounds this subjective and unstable dimension of remembering. Diaries, family archives, obsolete technologies, and bodily reminiscences become raw materials to examine the materiality of memory and its capacity for reinvention.

Hard drives, clouds, online profi les, and social networks are gradually replacing notebooks and photo albums. This massive externalization questions the boundary between private memory and public exposure, between lived traces and standardized data. Self Storage extends this inquiry into a contemporary era where identity is stored, outsourced, and endlessly duplicated. Through the works assembled, the exhibition off ers a poetic and critical drift between real and invented memory, intimate and externalized. It prompts us to consider: What do we need to retain? What do we choose to forget? And what becomes of the “self” when it is reduced to archives, content, and imprints?

curation : Nicolas de Chérisey & Philippine de Salaberry in collaboration with Ellia gallery

participating artists:
Joël Andrianomearisoa, Maxime Antony, Marcella Barceló, Aram Bartholl, Federica Belli, Matthias Bitzer, Borgial, Victor Boyer, Amélie Caussade, Salomé Chatriot, Coucou Bébé, Nick Coutsier, Fleur Cozic, Paul Créange, Corentin Darré, Oli Epp, Léonor Fini, Nan Goldin, Gregor Hildebrandt, Ryoji Ikeda, Victoire Inchauspé, Éloïse Labarbe-Lafon, Octave Lauret, Louis Lekien, Inès Longevial, Keegan Luttrell, Shiva Lynn Burgos, Matisse Mesnil, Sabine Mirlesse, Polina Osipova, Louise des Places, Joséphine de Rohan-Chabot, Philippine de Salaberry, Tehotu, Egon Thuile, Thu-Van Tran, Louis Verret, Francesco Vezzoli, Rose Vidal, Xolo Cuintle, Kai Yoda, Yugnat999.

My Painting

10. September 2026

Workshop, HAZ, Hattingen

3D-Scanning workshop with the painting class of HAZ

After Memory

10. July 2026 – 10. September 2026

Group Show, Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin

AFTER MEMORY reflects on how memory is affected by endless social media feeds, clouded storage spaces, automated data storage, and networked communication technologies. This bears both challenges and chances, as practices of remembering and forgetting are reconfigured and their competences are transferred from institutional actors to civic initiatives and individuals. In turn, the role of museums and archives is redefined, too, whose collections no longer preside over a sovereign narration of the past, but constitute shared repositories for the future.

With: Noor Abuarafeh, Heba Y. Amin, Maria Thereza Alves, Aram Bartholl, Taysir Batniji, Giselle Beiguelman, Zach Blas, Karolina Grzywnowicz, Ana Hupe, Eduardo Kac, Aline Motta, Rabih Mroué, Vanessa Amoah Opoku & Joy Weinberger und Federico Protto.

AFTER MEMORY is a project by: Nathalia Lavigne, Lisa Deml, Víctor Fancelli Capdevila

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Blog Archive for Tag: privacy

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

…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

"Fuck You Cookie"

September 29, 2009

“Fuck You Cookie” Performance
Fridericianum Museum, Kassel
16.01.2009
by Philipp Teister and Kim Asendorf.
You want a cookie too? Check this!

Tagged with: privacy

Gott sieht alles

July 13, 2009

I am waiting for the day when Google will ask us to ‘streetview’ our own houses and apartments. “Look, Tobi has a new kitchen table. Ah, here is his bathroom.”
Check the Google streetview bike on searchengineland!

Tagged with: google + privacy

Transparent Society

June 17, 2009

I feel so transparent today. 😉
‘Hey Google Health! Could you plz archive this for me. Thx!”
(Aua)

Tagged with: google + privacy

'Nice to see you'

May 31, 2009

It’s kind of natural nowadays that a meeting point is monitored by a surveillance cam. But in this particular case (at airport Tegel, Berlin, DE) it is interesting that the logo of the meeting point looks exactly like the cam itself.

Tagged with: privacy + surveillance

Secure Lock

June 23, 2008

The Deutsche Post has a new high security “lock” preventing customers from cash machine scam. This green plastic piece in front of the cash machine slot has a holographic lock on it. Wow! that makes me feel really safe.
Hmm … wait a moment. How do I know that Deutsche Post has placed it there?

Hey! How about some cash machine street art pieces? 😉

Tagged with: privacy

German Finger

May 27, 2008

I already had a pic of the official german finger print scanner in my blog lately.
But this time I had to get a new passport which includes a scan of my left and right index finger.
~I am really so happy that I can help my country to save us from terrorism by having my fingers scanned, wonderfull ~ …. [hehe, but I didn t tell them they were scanning a Schäuble (Minister of Internal Affairs) replica ;-)]

More details about the fake fingerprint of german Minister of Internal Affairs on edri.org

UPDATE:
Before this goes out of control! I didn’t really do it. I haven’t used a Schäuble replica for my passport finger scans. But I just wanted to point out the possibility (as suggested by CCC last 24c3) .

Tagged with: privacy

"Skype is a snitch."

February 24, 2008

I am not very good in tracking birthdays of friends, there always manybirthdays in spring. Addtionally skype notifies you when one of your contacts has birthday. Very handy but is it correct? Do I want that? Did I ask skype to tell everybody it s my birthday? Hmm … do I have to respond to a note because I know that he knows that I know …
I decided run an experiment. Since 5 days it s my birthday every day on skype. I got some messages, comments, emails and even phone calls. Some people were doubting, some noticed on the 3rd day. It was fun.

“Skype is a snitch.” Marius posted in a comment, very true.
(Btw, my birthday is on 27.12.)

Tagged with: privacy

„I.R.A.S.C. Infrared light against surveillance cameras”

February 18, 2008

A simple DIY infrared headlight disturbs surveillance cams. I like this very simple but efficient idea. Any proposals for daylight non-IR cams?

The artists U.R.A. / FILOART will present this project tomorrow during Pechakucha night Berlin volume 8. See you there!

Pechakucha vol.8
19.2.2008
20:20 h
at Tapegallery
Heidestr.14
Berlin

“Infrared light against surveillance cameras” is an infra-red device working as a protection shield from infra-red surveillance cameras. Everybody can rebuild this device without special technical skills.

I-R.A.S.C. is a device giving every citizen a reliable protection from governmental security measures. I-R.A.S.C. is security against security and therefore a response to the dissymmetry of the forces between state and individual. Instead of showing and interaction among human-beings, or between man and machine.

I-R.A.S.C. demonstrates an interaction among machines. This is part of absurd situation – while the time and effort invested into protection measures aims at the alleged safety of the citizens, the individual looses importance in this safety concept.

link

Tagged with: diy + privacy