Emobot
Catala’s work investigate emotions and empathy in our technological information-driven society. His computer generated Emobot appears at once familiar and strange as it utters simple statement about its feelings. The visually mesmerizing figure might serve as an avatar onto which we relate to the expression of strong feelings when they are delivered digitally-an increasing prevalent cultural phenomena. Listening to a not-quite human presence express its vulnerability may have less impact in us than hearing a real person communicate similar emotions. Nevertheless, the deliberate and repetitive manner in which Emobot articulates powerful sentiments affords us ample opportunity to reflect on the existential quality of their meaning.

From, the Future
The art is about waiting, something the entire world population knows since the onslaught of Covid-19. The title was also inspired by a dream where I told a scientist I was from the future and he believed me. My interpretation of the dream relates to my interest in the luminous thoughts of the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi, he clearly describes what our souls really are, beautiful, sacred, beyond time. I am fascinated by the existential impermanence of beauty. Beauty offers us a deep connection to the experience of life. The animation consists of cut flowers continuously falling from the sky, it can be seen by looking up to the ceiling. The title infers the signature on the note of a gift.

The way we were
Not only does Arcangelo Sassolino transform failure into art, but he manages to make the art of failing a profound part of the art of living. He goes even further in the awareness of risk. He is aware that his experiments may not hold up to the forces that he himself puts in place but this possible collateral damage wants to represent an additional value, becoming precisely the existential metaphor of the concepts of risk and failure. His installations explore the behavior and mechanical limits of matter, he forces their characteristics to distort their shape, gravity, pressure, friction, statics, and of each possibility Sassolino contemplates the risks of collapse with its precise timing and programming.

NO/Escape
Mallorcan artist Bernardi Roig (b. 1965) installs six sculptural works in unexpected interior and exterior spaces, challenging visitors to rethink the definition of the museum. Roig draws parallels between his and Honoré Daumier’s works, both of which offer poignant social commentary. Roig addresses the existential dualities of entrapment and liberation, blinding and illumination, absence and presence. Typical of the artist’s work are the cruel-looking white plaster figures cast from real people, often cornered or crushed against walls or twisting in pain. By including the element of light—whether a single light bulb, neon tubes, or fluorescent lights—Roig’s work blends minimalist forms with highly charged expressions of anxiety and loneliness.

Nine Bats

The abstract and colorful patterns of Kølbæk Iversen suck our bodies and envelop us in total installations that deal with the body, corporeality and phenomena such as phantom pain. The works store poetic and existential narratives of what it means to be human.

Death and the Powers

Science fiction and poignant family drama combine in one of the most stunning, cutting-edge operas of the 21st century, with a libretto by former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, coming to the stage of the Winspear Opera House in a production directed by Diane Paulus, designed by Alex McDowell (Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report) and conducted by Nicole Paiement (TDO’s The Lighthouse).This visually spectacular robot pageant by MIT Media Lab’s Tod Machover tells the story of a terminally ill billionaire, sung by Robert Orth, who downloads his consciousness into “the System” and proceeds to use all his powers to persuade his loved ones to join him there. Without bodies, without the possibility of touch, sex, suffering, and death — are we still genuinely human?Explore these existential questions and much more in a piece Variety described as “playful, lyrical and…mesmerizing.” Also starring Joélle Harvey as Miranda, Patricia Risley as Evvy, and Hal Cazalet in his Dallas Opera debut as Nicholas.

computer 1.0
C O M P U T E R 1.0 seeks to function as a historical lens that shows how our relationship to computing technology has always been fraught with juxtaposed promises of utopian and dystonia futures, while the reality consistently finds itself somewhere in between.
This installation reminds it’s onlookers that society has been grappling with a digital existentialism and the question of ‘are we better off?’ since the birth of programming itself. In this way, C O M P U T E R 1 . 0 is the physical display of the eternally uncertain potential of technology.

INposition
In the photo project INposition (2013), which was shot by a Hasselblad 501CM camera, she’s using playful manipulation of physical fragments to express existentialism or the limits of body and mind. Anna Horcinova staged her models – mostly dancers in physically difficult dance poses expressing an emotional state of mind together with a gesture. And with the help of the body she tries to cross the imperceptible boundaries between her subject and the world around it.

Last Child in the Woods
In her work, Melanie Bonajo examines the paradoxes inherent to ideas of comfort with a strong sense for community, equality, and body-politics. Through her videos, performances, photographs and installations, she studies subjects related to how technological advances and commoditybased pleasures increase feelings of alienation, removing a sense of belonging in an individual. Captivated by concepts of the divine, Bonajo explores the spiritual emptiness of her generation, examines peoples’ shifting relationship with nature and tries to understand existential questions by reflecting on our domestic situation, ideas around classification, concepts of home, gender and attitudes towards value.

Palm Fronds
Dissatisfied with his job as a construction worker, Brooklyn-based artist Ryan Estep turned to art to fulfill his desire to unveil truths in the world around him…and never looked back. Estep paints with unlikely mediums like lipstick and drywall mud on linen to create existential works of art.

梅拉妮·柏娜桥
progress
Melanie Bonajo exams the paradoxes inherent in our future-based ideas of comfort. Through her photographs, performances, videos and installations Bonajo examines subjects related to progress that remove from the individual a sense of belonging and looks at how technological advances and commodity-based pleasures increase feelings of alienation within the individual. Captivated by concepts of the divine, she explores the spiritual emptiness of her generation, examines peoples’ shifting relationship with nature and tries to understand existential questions by looking at our domestic situation, idea’s around classification, concepts of home, gender and attitudes towards value.

distortion
Human, ultra human or a poetic of deformation? Observing series “Distortions” by young photographer Hickey Heart (23 years old), is like taking a disturbing trip into our online lives 24h/24h, among small epiphanies, existential dilemmas and everyday solitudes.

As We May Feel
file festival

“As We May Feel” A parody of the 1945 text “As We May Think”, by Vannevar Bush What enduring benefits did science and technology bring to human beings? First of all, science and technology have extended the humans’ control on their material environment, helping them to perfect their food, their clothes, their dwelling, and gave them more security, allowing to live above the level of mere subsistence. Later on, they have permitted a wider knowledge of the biological processes that occur within our bodies, allowing the control of a more healthy and lasting life, always promising an enhancement of mental health. Finally, they contribute to the effectiveness of our communication. We have therefore a reason to live beyond survival — abundant health and efficient communication. And how do we deal with our existential feelings and conflicts? We don’t have time for our feelings, we can no longer ruminate them. We bury them in secret wishes without bigger consequences. Should we care more for our feelings? Negligence has been our way of cleaning our lives of sentimental values. When we cannot sweep them, we zip them and eventually access them to solve conflicts and/or to organize our thoughts. This project offers the access, through a click, to a central that points to a series of paths toward “As we may feel”. The content of this simulation of a phone center has as its aim to create an encyclopedia of existential feelings and conflicts that represent human life in contemporary society. Welcome to our call center!