ENVISIONING THE FUTURE – VR Art Exhibition in Washington D.C – co-curated by Tina Sauerlaender

Artists: A / A (Germany), Banz & Bowinkel (Germany), Scott Benesiinaabandan (Canada), Julian Bonequi (Mexico), Paloma Dawkins (Canada), Claudia Hart (USA), Jakob Kudsk Steensen (Denmark/USA)

Curators: Erandy Vergara and Tina Sauerlaender

Our future is constantly redefined and renegotiated in both real and virtual spaces in times of political tension between communities, countries, and cultures. Curiosity and the spirit of discovery juxtapose resentments and  fear towards the yet unknown or the so-called Other. Yet the Other struggles to create spaces and to envision a future she/he is actively a part of.

Seven artists from different geographic locations and backgrounds discuss worldviews in utopian or apocalyptic, cultural or natural contexts in their virtual artworks. They are hypothetical imaginations that reflect about possible states for worlds. Together, they ask what is the future we would like to live in and how can we get there? They call us to rethink the present in order to envision the future.

The artists take us to parallel worlds: apocalytpic moments (A / A, Germany); archipelagos removed from physical laws (Banz & Bowinkel, Germany); native Canadian history and future visions (Scott Benesiinaabandan, Canada); human birth and death on Earth and on Mars (Julian Bonequi, Mexico); journey into the fabled unknown (Paloma Dawkins, Canada); liminal and mythological wonderlands (Claudia Hart, USA); tourism and technology facing climate change (Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Denmark/USA). All artists use Virtual Reality, the new medium in art, as their tool of expression. This medium creates a blank space for new visions. In virtual reality, the viewers are in the center and  surrounded entirely. They decide where to look and where to go; they co-shape the world they are in. Viewers are assigned the active role of the user. Just like the virtual artwork is complete through the actions of the users, these users are also are able to rethink and reshape their own physical reality.

This selection of current VR projects combines the passion and expertise of two curators: Erandy Vergara's engagement with postcolonial and feminist perspectives on media art and theory (Mexico/Montreal) and Tina Sauerlaender's curatorial engagement with digital technologies and Virtual Reality (Berlin).

Invited by the Goethe-Institut and Studio XX in Montréal, they developed the concept for their exhibition series “Critical Approaches in Virtual Reality Art”, where this exhibition Envisioning the Future is part of.

October 24 to 28, 2018 at Halcyon Arts Lab, Washington D.C

LInk to the Facebook Event

Link to the announcement on the Goethe-Institute’s website

peer to space at DIGIFEST in Toronto

Install view: Li Alin, Enter Me Tonight, House of Electronic Arts Basel, 2017 / Photo by Franz Wamhof

VR projects at Digifest:

H.E.A.R.T. by Erin Gee and Alex M. Lee
Enter Me Tonight by Li Alin

Presented by the Goethe-Institut Toronto
Curated by Tina Sauerlaender (Berlin) and Erandy Vergara (Montreal)

At the invitation of the Goethe-Institut curators Tina Sauerländer and Erandy Vergara have selected VR works for this year’s Toronto Digifest, including two recent pieces by Berlin-based Canadian artist Li Alin and Montreal-based artist Erin Gee in collaboration with South Korean-born, US-based artist Alex M. Lee. The artists use humor and irony to engage in controversial topics: emotions in first-person shooter video games and war in the case of Gee, and a futuristic exploration on human reproduction in technology-oriented times in the case of Alin.

Further information here / Tina Sauerlaender on the Goethe Blog.

DEEP WATER CULTURES at GOETHE INSTITUT MONTRÉAL

Window Projections curated by Tina Sauerlaender. Projected on the Goethe-Institut's windows on St-Laurent Boul. and Ontario St., Montréal, Canada.

Anuk Miladinovic, Dream, 2016

Jonas Blume, Iso-E-Super, 2017

Marte Kiessling, Camac, 2014

Water, often referred to as the essence of life, is also the foundation of the cultural development of humans. Today water is used, applied and presented in a multitude of ways. The works by the artists Jonas Blume, Marte Kiessling and Anuk Miladinović center on the topic how humankind handles its most important element.

Credits: Anuk Miladinovic, Dream, 2016 // Marte Kiessling, Camac, 2014 // Jonas Blume, Iso-E-Super, 2017

Further Information here

Critical Conversation on Virtual Reality in Canada

Critical Approaches to Virtual Reality: A Conversation about the Present, Past and Future of VR

Presenters: Tina Sauerlaender, Erandy Vergara, Paloma Dawkins, Tali Goldstein and Ruben Farrus (Casa Rara)

May 24th, 5pm to 7pm

Milieux Institute at Concordia University

Recent art projects and discussions about VR seem mostly awestruck by the possibilities of the technologies themselves. However, there are critical and historical perspectives that we must address in order to investigate issues of aesthetics, politics, and the conceptual aspects of VR artworks and games. This conversation will include questions such as: How can artists and collectives working with Virtual Reality today challenge mainstream uses of this technology? What can we learn from the pioneers of VR and the criticism that media theorists asked regarding early celebratory discourses? Where are we in regards to issues of embodiment/disembodiment? What about feminist and postcolonial critiques of VR?

Studio XX sincerely thanks the Goethe-Institut and the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology at Concordia University for their support as partners of this event.

Image: Exhibition view THE UNFRAMED WORLD at HeK Basel, artwork: Banz & Bowinkel, Mercury, 2016 (Installation view, VR experience) / Photo by Franz Wamhof