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.

pictures

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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: sociial

Site Update & “Sociial” text

January 21, 2009

It took me a while but I finally managed to update my website with these ‘recent’ projects: China Channel, Jump’n Run Shanghai and Sociial. Nothing really new but now also featuring a full translation for the Sociial project.

Sociial from Aram Bartholl on Vimeo.
Sociial is a 17-minute performance presented by four protagonists and an announcer in a stage-like situation. The four “dancers” play tennis on a Nintendo Wii game console while every 10 seconds the announcer reads out descriptions a selection of 100 Web 2.0 services. The Nintendo Wii game console, which came onto the market in 2006, has a new kind of user interface. In contrast to the usual couch potato playing modus, Wii players must exert themselves physically. A sensor can locate the position of up to four game controllers in the playing area…
… read on

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“Sociial” Pictures

December 6, 2008


All pictures of the “Sociial” performance 5.12.2008 at Weserburg Bremen on flickr. Movie documentation etc coming soon ….

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Sociial

December 1, 2008


On next friday I’ll be showing my new performance piece “Sociial” at Weserburg Art Museum Bremen, DE. There will be a a new microbutton t-shirt, wii action and Kosmar will ‘explain’ 100 Web2.0 services in 20 minutes.

17th Video Art Award Bremen

Aram Bartholl “Sociial” – Performance during the opening

Maximilian Moll “Keep the fire burning”
Stephane Leonard “The Bridge’s Song”

6.12.2008 – 4.1.2009
Opening 5.12.2008 7pm

Speakers:
Ingo Clauss / Curator of the Weserburg
Klaus W. Becker / Film-Office Bremen
Dr. Wulf Herzogenrath / Director of Kunstahalle Bremen
Anouncement of the Video Art Award winner of 2008
Guided tour through the exhibition by the Curator Marikke Heinz-Hoek on 7.12. 11:30 am.

The Videokunst Förderpreis Bremen has advanced to become an important art prize. It is not awarded to completed works, but to concepts that the prize money makes possible to be brought to fruition. This is extremely important in the area of video art, as works of video art are frequently elaborate productions that cannot be realized without financial support in the first place. Within the scope of the competition, high-quality works on video have been being produced on a regular basis since 1992. Due to the Filmbüro Bremen’s keen commitment, this success story can continue be written this year as well. The works by last year’s recipients of the prize—Aram Bartholl, Maximilian Moll, Stephane Leonard—are now being presented for the first time at a four-week exhibition
The exhibition will open with Aram Bartholl’s performance Sociial, which features the games console Wii that Nintendo introduced to the market two years ago. One of the device’s special features is a novel interface between player and computer. Players are required to exert their full physical effort. Sensors register their movements and communicate them directly to the computer game. The in part ridiculous movements are accompanied by a lecture that is no less grotesque—in an endless litany, it presents the countless merits of online services. Facebook, Myspace, studiVZ, and all the other “social networks” are lastingly changing our everyday lives. Yet how social can software be? And what impact do digital developments have on the way we coexist? Against this backdrop, the insane contortions the computer game exacts appear to be thoroughly dubious operations.
Fire is the constitutive element in Maximilian Moll’s video installation Keep the fire burning. The artist uses several projections to set fire to the exhibition space, playing with the various qualities and meanings of fire. Whether forest fire or campfire, candlelight or blaze, humankind’s relationship with fire has always been ambivalent. Fire represents warmth and light, yet it can also escalate into a destructive force. A space-consuming dramaturgy has developed out of this field of tension. However, the digitally generated, in part apparently abstract images do not follow simple narrative patterns. They create a multi-layered resonating space in which personal memories are stimulated and connect up to the images of fire to produce a special form of aesthetic experience.
Stephane Leonard works as an artist, musician, composer, and filmmaker. In his multi-part video installation The Bridge’s Song, these areas team up in a singular way. One sees New York’s Queensboro Bridge. The impressive dimensions of the bridge, its enormous pillars are transferred into the exhibition space by means of a large-format projection. It is flanked by further projections that show the urban environment, the thunderous road traffic, skyscrapers, but also a view from a gondola slowly passing by the bridge. In an interplay with the sound level, the images of the city develop striking intensity. A complex audiovisual composition evolves from the background noises of the metropolis, the rhythm of the road traffic, in which even a bridge can release its very own sound: The Bridge’s Song.

Ingo Clauß

The Videokunst Förderpreis awarded by the Filmbüro Bremen is made possible by the Senator of Art, the Bremische Landesmedienanstalt, Radio Bremen, and the artists association GEDOK. The names of the new award winners will be announced on the evening of the opening, December 5, at 7:00 p.m.

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VKP 2008

November 19, 2008


Invitation to my upcoming project. More details coming soon.
[wow, the jpg algorithm has quite some problems with that color]
Wir laden Sie herzlich ein zur Eröffnung der Ausstellung am
Freitag, dem 05. Dezember 2008, um 19 Uhr.
Es sprechen
Ingo Clauß | Kurator der Weserburg
Klaus W. Becker | Geschäftsführer des Filmbüros
Dr. Wulf Herzogenrath | Direktor der Kunsthalle
Im Anschluss werden die neuen Preisträger des
Videokunst Förderpreis Bremen bekannt gegeben.
Die Kuratorin Marikke Heinz-Hoek führt am Sonntag,
dem 07. Dezember um 11:30 Uhr durch die Ausstellung.
Filmbüro Bremen e.V. | Die Kulturelle Filmförderung
Plantage 13, 28215 Bremen, Telefon (0421) 708 48 91
www.fi lmbuero-bremen.de, vkp@fi lmbuero-bremen.de
Videokunst Förderpreis | Kuratorin: Marikke Heinz-Hoek,
Organisation: Christian Meier-Kahrweg
Weserburg | Museum für moderne Kunst
Teerhof 20, 28199 Bremen, www.weserburg.de
Öffnungszeiten: Dienstag, Mittwoch und Freitag 10 – 18 Uhr,
Donnerstag 10 – 21 Uhr, Samstag und Sonntag 11 – 18 Uhr, Montag geschlossen

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Consumer Media Art

May 9, 2008

The success of Nintendo Wii shows very well how classic Media Art of the last 20 years has arrived in everyday consumer products. I am curious how the connection of physical body and digital space will evolve in day to day life in the future. This Wii Fit Parody is quite funny. Sure, you better would go out to play real soccer but the way Nintendo integrates the body as a game interface is for most people new and a striking experience. Next step is then to emancipate from the screen and to go for the physical interaction again. 😉
The concept for the performance piece “Sociial” which won me the Video Award Bremen last year also involves physical Wii action. It’ll be shown in December 2008 in Bremen. Hmm, should I try to include the Wii Fit balance now?

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Video Art Award – Bremen

December 12, 2007


I am pleased to anounce that I won a first price for a concept I proposed to the 17th video art award Bremen. Planned by Filmbuero Bremen e.V and curated by Marikke Heinz-Hoek. The opening of the exhibition of last year winners took place on 9.12.07.

More details comming soon.

Pic by Marius Watz

Udate:
#17 video award Bremen

Jury:
Astrid Nippoldt
Christian Katti
Sönke Magnus Müller

Awarded concepts:

– Aram Bartholl “Sociial”
– Maximilaian Moll “Keep the fire burning”
– Stephane Leonard “New York Street Ensemble”

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