playground

Spiritus Sonata

Spiritus Sonata is an artistic representation of animism. ‘Spiritus’ is variously translated from Latin, Hebrew and Greek to mean breath or ‘spirit sense’. With this theoretical combination of breath, spirit, animating the inanimate and investing our characters with digital souls, we aim to engender positive emotion in our audience.
By embedding echoes of childhood play in this installation and linking them to animism we hope to inspire reflection in participants. The same air used to inflate the structures is used to create sounds from their nose extensions, an instrument that operates like an old church pipe organ, another subtle link to worship as well as being a joyful, playful feature.

Shell of

FILE 2024 | Installations
International Electronic Language Festival
Marc Vilanova – Cascade – Spain

Waterfalls are a continuous source of infrasonic frequency found in nature. Although inaudible to humans, they play a crucial role in ecosystems, especially for migratory birds who use them as a compass. However, many waterfalls have lost their frequencies due to climate change. The work creates an immersive experience in which the audience interacts with the visualization of sound waves, experiencing the vibration of sound through illuminated strings.

Bio

Marc Vilanova is a sound and visual artist who works at the intersection of art, science and nature. Vilanova’s artistic production has always been led by a spirit of innovation fueled by an interest in new media. His practice combines sound/light installations, performance, and sculpture.

Credits

This work was partially carried out within the scope of the EMAP program at gnration, with the support of the Creative Europe Culture Programme, the Avatar Center in Quebec City and the Ramon Llull Institute.

Photo:
Eloise Coomber

Magic Drops

FILE 2024 | Interator – Sound Synthetics
International Electronic Language Festival
Michael Sadowski (aka derealizer) – Magic Drops – Austria

Moving abstract structures and grimacing masks, colors that change and pulse to the rhythm of the music create a psychedelic experience that embodies the spirit of Techno.

Bio

Using Stable Diffusion, a visual synthesizer, the artist turns fantasies into videos using just a PC, similar to the invention of printing 600 years ago. Exploring the interplay between software algorithms that create visual worlds and the artist’s mind guiding this process is incredibly exciting. Unlike traditional cinema, there is no ‘reality’ or humans involved, making it a satisfying medium for creating visual art.

Credits

Music: Chris Robert

The Orb
The Orb is a nimble architecture of experience and light. Against the grand staging of the new Charleston East building—an architecture of lightness in its own right—this pavilion performs as a complementary structure: one developed from the computational protocols and spirit of play that guide the work that happens on the premises. This system of many parts in ultra-thin aluminum will perform as an icon and a point of engagement for both Google employees and the Mountain View public.

Ascent
Ascent is a large-scale site-specific light installation that embodies a variety of archetypical and physical associations – from microscopic observations, electromagnetic wave dynamics, and atmospheric phenomena of a whirlwind to a spiritual epiphany. Most importantly, Ascent offers a unique immersive experience, that invites the viewer to become its central point, and transforms the perception of the viewer on a sensual level. The light and the fog create a monumental dynamic space that is participatory, the space that opens up a new dimension and directs the attention toward the bodily sensations in the explicit environment. The viewer is free to approach the work according to its own sensual response, but direct interaction can offer the potential to evoke a new perceptual imagination.

ايسي مياكي
איסי מיקים
イッセイミヤケ
이세이 미야케
ISSEY MIYAKE
homage
R.I.P

ISSEY MIYAKE valued free and unconventional thinking – thinking that took into account the spirit of creation, curiosity and love as a universal expression.
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ISSEY MIYAKE schätzte freies und unkonventionelles Denken – Denken, das den Geist der Schöpfung, Neugier und Liebe als universellen Ausdruck berücksichtigte.
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ISSEY MIYAKEは、自由で型破りな思考、つまり創造の精神、好奇心、愛を普遍的な表現として考慮した思考を大切にしました。

#define Moon_
[#define Moon_ ] consists of 9 rotating kinect light installations. It presents different postures of moon shape, exerting new sense experiences. The audience is allowed to explore through various ways of looking and bring curiosity to the installation by watching from different angles. By thinking of the science spirit, once again, viewer can define and understand the concept of this work of their own.

Windows of the Soul
In de installatie Windows of the Soul gebruikte Sonia Falcone haar spiritualiteit als centraal thema en presenteerde ze dit op de XVII Bienal de Arte de Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in 2010. De video-installatie was gemaakt van dunne, verticale blokken die rond zes meter en ongelijk uitgelijnd. Op de blokken projecteerde ze video gemaakt van korte en kleurrijke componenten die elk een deel van haar persoonlijke leven vertegenwoordigden. Ze mengde kunstmatige en natuurlijke landschappen om de eenheid en het belang van beide in het menselijk bestaan ​​te benadrukken, en de boodschap die ze wilde overbrengen is dat leven mooi is, vanaf het moment van conceptie door alles wat de mens doet en voelt in zijn leven. Haar missie was om hoop te sturen en aan te geven dat er een belofte is voor een betere toekomst.

Deep Meditations
Diepe Meditaties: Een korte geschiedenis van bijna alles in 60 minuten is een grootschalige video- en geluidsinstallatie; een meerkanaals, één uur durende abstracte film; een monument dat het leven, de natuur, het universum en onze subjectieve beleving ervan viert. Het werk nodigt ons uit op een spirituele reis door langzame, meditatieve, voortdurend evoluerende beelden en geluiden, verteld door de verbeelding van een diep kunstmatig neuraal netwerk.

32 rue vandenbranden
The script of physical actions is inspired by the Japanese film A ballad de Naraiama (1983), by Shohei Imamura, the one with tearing images, like that of the son carrying his mother on his back, embraced by the wind, climbing the mountain to put her on the summit until death, as the local tradition says that every septuagenarian must have an equal destiny. In the same village in the late 19th century, parents used to sell babies to survive. These material and spiritual miseries do not bring literals to the stage. Rather, they are essentials that make the show a fabulous visual poem written in and with the body and the scenic space. The song is also celebrated at the height, with moments such as Stravinski’s The Bird of Fire suite, and the song Fline on you crazy diamond, by the band Pink Floyd.

100 Northern Ave
You’ve probably never seen anything like this before. Six members of the vertical dance troupe BANDALOOP descended the façade of the new 100 Northern Ave. building commemorating its grand opening at Boston’s Seaport District. The performers are held securely by special rigging allowing them to mesmerize audiences with dynamic physicality and intricate choreography. BANDALOOP honors nature, community, and the human spirit through perspective-bending dance. A pioneer in vertical performance, BANDALOOP seamlessly weaves dynamic physicality, intricate choreography and climbing technology to turn the dance floor on its side. Under the artistic direction of Amelia Rudolph, the work re-imagines dance, activates public spaces, and inspires wonder and imagination in audiences around the world.

The Lightning Field

His last large-scale work “The Lightning Field”, a Land Art project built on a semi-desert plain in New Mexico, in the United States, between 1971 and 1977, consists of four hundred meters high, placed in a geometric matrix strict. This area is often plagued by storms and these metal stakes serve to attract the rays, accentuating the dramatic spirit and the scale of the place.

Escorregador
“Quando as pessoas estão descendo um escorregador, muitas vezes gritam de pura alegria. Estou interessado no aspecto de deixar ir. Uma vez que você se solta, você viaja sem motivação para algum lugar específico. É um estado de espírito muito especial. Talvez “felicidade” (ou “prazer”) não seja a palavra certa, mas tem a ver com alívio ou mesmo liberdade.”

Conheça seu criador
Uma performance teatral ao vivo / escultura de luz cinética com drones quadrotor, LEDs, espelhos motorizados e faróis em movimento dançando em uma alegre celebração de balé robótico da tecnoespiritualidade. Explorando UAVs (veículos aéreos não tripulados) semi-autônomos programados por computador como um meio de desviar e desviar a luz e criar esculturas de luz flutuantes dançando ao som da música. Máquinas que tradicionalmente são fornecedores de vigilância e opressão; são artisticamente redefinidos para serem fornecedores de música, dança, alegria, celebração e criatividade.

Noético
Noético é o princípio que conecta um cósmico com cada consciência individual. A beleza desse conceito de ordem se reflete nos movimentos de dança expressivos de Cherkaoui, bem como nas estruturas geométricas de aço do artista visual Antony Gormley. A densidade atmosférica é intensificada por um percussionista e vocais japoneses tradicionais ao vivo. Espaço, ordem e espírito não são mostrados aqui como estruturas rígidas, mas como correntes poéticas fluindo.

O experimento da cama I
Testemunhe como as cobertas são puxadas para trás para revelar os rituais indomável Homo Sapiens em seu local de aninhamento favorito – uma cama gigante! Como um documentário bizarro sobre a natureza, THE BED EXPERIMENT rastreia quatro homens e quatro mulheres, que enquanto confrontam seus medos e desejos mais profundos, equilibram o espirituoso e o estranho com o dolorosamente real.

Aqueous
Inspired by the color blue’s calming qualities, Aqueous is a deep dive into our water-filled surroundings. Whether looking out at the vast horizon of the ocean or listening to the bubbling flow of a stream, water instills a sense of peace and relaxation. Through exploring the textures of liquid in all its states, this immersive installation seeks to soothe the spirit and inspire action to preserve this natural resource.

توماس هيرشهورن
托马斯·赫塞豪恩
תומס הירשהורן
トーマス·ヒルシュホルン
abschlag

Thomas Hirschhorn’s “Abschlag” installation, which occupies the first room on the main floor, offers a lesson in how not to engage with the Russian milieu: the Swiss artist constructed part of a typical Petersburg apartment block out of cardboard inside the full-height space, ripped off its façade, and deposited the refuse at its base, revealing shabby interiors lined with original avant-garde masterpieces (on loan from the nearby Russian Museum) by the likes of Malevich and El Lissitky. The references allude to a politically radical Russian past; the construction debris acts as a metaphor for history. Though Hirschhorn suggests a recovery of the revolutionary communist spirit of the 1920s, he falls prey to a historically revisionist fetish: citing the Russian avant-garde as a generative point for vanguard culture in the West, and offering it as a source for renewed progressivism in Russia. Hirschhorn seems woefully unaware of the Putin government’s branding campaign, one that aims to sell the Russian avant-guard as a nationalist movement in line with the regime’s own values (perhaps he didn’t watch the Sochi opening ceremony). Hirschhorn ultimately proves Zhilayev right — with its political pretenses, “Abschlag” aspires to make a grand gesture against conservatism, but fails because its critique has already been co-opted..
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The Feast of Trimalchio: Arrival of Golden Boat

Del Satyricon di Petronio, spiritoso e lirico malinconico dell’epoca dell’imperatore Nerone, ci pervenne quasi intatto solo il capitolo dedicato alla cena di Trimalcione. La fantasia di Petronio fece del nome di Trimalcione il simbolo della ricezza e del lusso, del vizio della gola e della lussuria in barba alla fugacità della vita umana.
Abbiamo cercato di presentare qualcosa di simile nelle realta` del Terzo Millennio. Così, abbiamo visto Trimalchione, ex servo, liberto, nuovo ricco che dà conviti di molti giorni nel suo palazzo, invece che una persona, come un’immagine generalizzata di un hotel di lusso, una sorta di paradiso terrestre, il soggiorno in cui è prepagato.
Gli ospiti dell’hotel – i ‘padroni’, esponenti del “miliardo dorato”, cercano di dedicare parte del loro tempo, in qualsiasi stagione, al soggiorno presso Trimalcione odierno che ha arredato il proprio palazzo – hotel con il massimo esoticismo e lusso. L’architettura del Palazzo Hotel rappresenta un’assurda sintesi della spiaggia tropicale con la stazione sciistica. I ‘padroni’ indossano abiti bianchi che sembrano, da una parte, l’uniforme dei giusti dell’Eden temporaneo, dall’altra, la tradizionale uniforme coloniale, e, al contempo, una collezione estiva alla moda. I ‘padroni’ impersonano tutte le caratteristiche dell’umanità: ci sono, tra di loro, personaggi dai bambini ai vecchioni, hanno certi segni psicologici e sociali: un pofessore è dissimile da un broker, una donna di mondo da una intellettuale. I ‘servi’ di Trimalcione, giovani e carini esponenti di vari continenti (asiatici, africani, latinoamericani), il personale dell’industria alberghiera, dalle cameriere ai cuochi, ai giardinieri, alle guardie e ai massaggiatori. Sono tutti giovani e belli e indossano uniformi tradizionali di vario colore a seconda dell’etnia. Sono una specie di ‘angeli’ “di colore” del paradiso al quale i ‘padroni’ possono accedere per un certo tempo.

Cyberia

Performance & live computer generated simulation

A postmodern fairytale, Cyberia takes place somewhere in a cold distant East, stretching between and endless imaginary realm and a vast physical space. It is a westwards journey towards a promised future with no arrival and no return. There is no here or there, only a twilight zone between a departure point and a simulated destination. Between digital video projections and a physical setting, using the mechanics of a video-game engine with a motion capture suit, Cyberia is the simulation of an endless pre-climax state where a performer and a CG avatar dance as one to the rhythms of an imaginary West. In a world oversaturated by digital data –mysticism and paranormal are as popular as ever. Emerging technologies are increasingly incorporated in a form of postmodern spiritualism, as Arthur C. Clarke points out: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Troll Mirror
The mechanical mirrors are made of various materials but share the same behavior and interaction; any person standing in front of one of these pieces is instantly reflected on its surface. The mechanical mirrors all have video cameras, motors and computers on board and produce a soothing sound as the viewer interacts with them. Troll Mirror was commisioned by Traget and is made of pairs of pink and blue troll dolls. Every troll doll pair can rotate so that the pink or blue troll face the front. The result is a colorfull reflection of the viewer’s outline and playfull colorfull transitions

Loom
Loom showcases abstract animations developed with data from real-time Google Trends. Popular queries appear momentarily as overlaid text before dissolving into a smoky abstraction. These terms are approached with an accidental lyricism —each word appears and disappears in a trail of saturation. Colors within the animation are determined by the prevalence of a specific topic; the more viral the search is online, the warmer the tones become. Stripped from headlines, graphic imagery, and statistics, each phrase inspires a contemplative experience, a chance for the viewer to ruminate on what is streaming through the collective consciousness at any given time. Loom weaves a social fabric, mixing the transcendental with the banal, to present the spirit of our time in generative motion.

Oscillations
“Oscillations” presents a group of statues made of bronze, alabaster, marble and stone, placed in a large and immersive installation. The statues represent ancient, prehistoric Venus statues, which give voice to an era 15’000 years ago, when women explored for the first time the power of psychoactive substances and the journeys of the mind. Humeau navigates between worlds with these Venuses as they are speaking statues: their voice create a space of oscillation between the human world and spirits world, taking the visitors with them in this sort of shamanistic ritual.

HARA
Guillaume marmin and Frédéric marolleau convey spiritual essence through visual abstraction in ‘hara’, an audio-visual collaboration for the 7th chromatic festival in montréal, québec. ‘Hara’, the anatomical home of energy according to japanese custom, is explored by various means. Music and light move through states of tension and calm, creating for each visitor a unique contemplative experience.

the psychotron installation
Now one of Doug’s stunning installations is available in edition format. The Psychotron Framed – a video piece based on the 12-petal lotus flower symbolising eastern spirituality’s heart chakra – has been harnessed into a purpose-built viewer that can hang on a wall or stand freely on a flat surface. The piece is currently only available by collection from The Outsiders London gallery. Order now and Doug will assemble the materials in two weeks.“For centuries, circular figures containing symmetrical patterns have been used as a tool for meditation,” says Doug of his original Psychotron on display at Bedlam. “The mandala, the yantra and visualisations of the various chakras, all conform to radial design principles that have been refined throughout the ages. Now those principles have been ruthlessly plundered for the creation of The Psychotron.

Return to Sender
Disarm music box
For the work group Disarm, he was able to use 6,700 weapons confiscated in the Mexican drug war and transform these into musical instruments[…] They play well-known, classical music pieces from the respective manufacturer’s country of origin. A musical box made with Glock pistol parts plays Mozart, Beretta barrels Vivaldi, while Reyes’s weapon of choice for Swiss songwriter Mani Matter is the Carabine. Reyes is concerned with «upcycling» – transforming an instrument of death into a musical instrument that stands for dialog and exchange. He undertakes this transformation process with the conviction that the physical act is always accompanied by an idealistic one and appeals to the spiritual dimension of this quasi-alchemical operation towards the good.

Ikon of Eros

The tempo of the music changes frequently, illustrating love that at times may be almost austere and at other times ecstatic. In the second movement an ethereal female chorus is suddenly punctuated by deep percussion instruments and gives way to an almost erotic middle eastern beat, contrasting a pure spiritual love with a more physical, sensual form.

Spirit Molecule
Spirit Molecule II, engages local community members as DNA donors to be memorialized in a site-specific commission for the Broad Museum at Michigan State University, created in collaboration with University scientist Dr. Bjoern Hamberger. The work consists of a large mound of moss growing in the gallery, with four embedded cylinders containing genetic memorial plants. In this iteration we embed both human DNA and a gene for the scent of patchouli into lab-strain moss Physcomitrella patens.

ДЖЕННИС МАРКОПУЛОС
Cartoon Skull Mask

“The mask is an object worn over or in front of the face of a skull to hide the identity of it and by its own features to establish a part of a cartoon being. This essential characteristic of hiding and revealing personalities or moods is common to all masks. As cultural objects they have been used throughout the world in all periods and have been as varied in appearance as in their use and symbolism.
The wearer of the cartoon mask is considered to be in direct association with the spirit force of the mask and is consequently exposed to personal danger of being affected by it.The wearer of the cartoon mask is a skull and the person behind to the skull is not under the living persons.The ironic combination of two inappropriate items is to the stoic thinking to owe.”

Taking in her paintings is like opening your eyes after a nap in the sand. The colourful masses on her canvas appear to be in motion, plunging the spectator into a semi-conscious state. Beyond the merely pictorial, Ana Montiel’s works read like spiritual, dreamlike invitations, that hit you with a feeling of satisfaction and involuntary entrancement. Any tangible form looks acid-washed; a silhouette or a ray of sun gives way to a sfumato of light and pigments. The artist is interested in the conceptual issues of perception and phenomenology, based on the premise that reality is nothing but a collective and controlled hallucination.

Chromadynamica
Pantone’s work deals with dynamism, transformation, digital revolution, and themes related to the present times. Felipe Pantone evokes a spirit in his work that feels like a collision between an analog past and a digitized future, where human beings and machines will inevitably glitch alongside one another in a prism of neon gradients, geometric shapes, optical patterns, and jagged grids. Based in Spain, Pantone is a byproduct of the technological age when kids unlocked life’s mysteries through the Internet. As a result of this prolonged screen time, he explores how the displacement of the light spectrum impacts color and repetition.

INFINITUM
INFINITUM is an immersive art – architectural installation presented at the Sharjah Art Museum on the occasion of the Islamic Arts Festival 2019/20, 22nd Edition. Arches are typical in Mosques’ design. […] Islamic Arches buildings are typically constructed of stone, wood being rarer in the original Middle Eastern homelands of the Umayyads. The rows of Columns and Arches give a visual impression of limitless space, as a metaphor of the progress for human civilization, maximizing spiritual symbolism and visual appeal – progressing towards an ideal civilization. It refers to centuries of human civilization and the creation of prospective in social spaces and the openness to open possibilities of human life.

(ego hiperrealista) + (juguete del viento) =
Custic combines models, costumes and various other objects that inspire him, using them to give form to abstract concepts surrounding humanity and its evolution. Spirituality, religion, relationships and sexuality are all explored through a lens preoccupied with fragmentation, pataphysics, optical balance effects and technological art.

masks
“I have been inspired by many artists of the past and present to arrive at this moment of creativity. I have been inspired by some wonderful spiritual teachers to arrive at this moment of beauty and mystery. I invite you to share in my vision of this mystery“. Steve Fields

ريبيكا هورن
רבקה הורן
レベッカ·ホルン
레베카 호른
РЕБЕККА ХОРН
Spirits
Rebecca Horn é uma artista alemã, e um dos nomes consagrados da arte contemporânea. Conhecida por utilizar materiais diversos como penas, chifres, espelhos, etc, ela consegue unir em suas criações contundência e sutileza, realismo e certa magia surrealista, utopia e erotismo, política e lirismo, o alargamento e diminuição da escala.

펨케 에이지 마
פמקה אגמה
菲克·艾格玛
Hopi
Todos os anos, os Hopi, uma tribo nativa americana, dão aos seus filhos bonecas Kachina, representando os espíritos que acreditam controlar as forças da natureza. Tradicionalmente esculpidos nas raízes das árvores, os trajes e máscaras de Kachina são uma profusão de cores e imaginação. A criatividade envolvida em sua criação e a beleza de suas proporções enormes foram a inspiração para Hopi. Esta coleção Primavera / Verão celebra o poder da natureza e explora novos territórios com o mesmo sentimento de admiração que os Hopi.

BODIES INC
Bodies INC 2.0 is dedicated to creating ways to PROTECT YOUR THIRD EYE! Our proprietary body parts, textures and sounds are embedded with deeper meaning and energy – we give you the power you need to function successfully in the spiritual and material realms. Once you become (in)INCorated into our magical system, you will have an opportunity to apply the secret techniques and empowerments. Become a member and a door to collective emergent systems will open for you to function in multiverses now hidden from view!

Thinking Machine
file festival

A map is created from the traces of literally thousands of possible futures as the program tries to decide its best move. Those traces become a key to the invisible lines of force in the game as well as a window into the spirit of a thinking machine.

Afternoon Tear Drinker
Photo: Nikolaus Weitzer
Kris Lemsalu uses masquerade as a means of expression when staging her performances and installations. The artist spirits us away to a fantasy world, where she however grapples with universal concerns of today such as desire, sexuality and transformation. Drawing on a feminist tradition of performance and staged photography, she combines disparate elements such as human and animal body parts made of ceramic with skins, fabric and garments.

About Endlessness
La nueva película de Roy Andersson, una especie de secuela espiritual de A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, está compuesta por una serie de viñetas narradas por una mujer joven desde un futuro indefinido: una pareja flota por una Colonia en ruinas; un padre se detiene a atar los cordones de los zapatos de su hija bajo la lluvia; un cura con crisis de fe busca ayuda de un psiquiatra que lo único que quiere es llegar a tomar el colectivo de vuelta a casa. La película, por la que Andersson ganó el León de Plata a Mejor Director en el último Festival de Venecia, es otra muestra de su talento para captar la esencia de la vida, transitando entre la comedia y el drama, entre la alegría y la tristeza. Y todo esto en apenas 76 encantadores minutos.

Death Death Death
File Festival
“Death Death Death” is book written by an algorithm. It utilizes a word association study conducted by the University of South Florida between 1976 and 1998. It contains over 10,000 words and their associations to each other. “Death Death Death” traces a path from each word to the word death. The book starts off with the words most closely associated to death. The beginning reads like this: Life – Death Funeral – Death Coffin – Death. Later, it takes several associative leaps to get to death: Enthusiasm – Spirit – Soul – Death Folly – Funny – Sad – Death Bahamas – Paradise – Heaven – Death Waggle – Wiggle – Worm – Maggot – Death. Reading soon becomes humorous, as every line reads like a joke-death is always the punchline. “Death Death Death” is 405 pages, contains an index so you can find any word, and a detailed description of the algorithm. Death Death Death was nominated for the 2010 File Prix Lux in the Digital Languages category.
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TETRAGRAMMATON
A dialogue between these two artists on themes of myth, ritual and meaning, as much about their exhaustion and propensity to bewilderment as any potential they may inhere, for recuperation for and by language, culture and society.Joey’s work, ‘Religiously observant’, is inspired by alchemical and occult ideas, the world of spirits and hallucinations. The wall print features a gold CGI blazon of the Tetragrammaton It references the Sumerian mythology of the Annunaki a race of ancient chthonic fertility Gods, subsequently inscribed in a series of publications by Zecharia Sitchin (a kind of elder statesman of conspiracy theorists worldwide) as descendants of aliens, who enslaved the human race to extract gold from the earth.John’s work similarly ranges over territories of opposition: between ancient and contemporary; mythic and kitsch; between the viscid and primordial. It takes as its subject the vector of congealment, in the Marxist sense of the way labour power is congealed in commodities and so forth, extending this metaphor into an aesthetics of myth and ritual, emptied out, flattened, compacted like a sedimentary layer of anthropocene garbage, for the post-historical epoch.The sound component provides an aural complement to this structure of refuse, exhaustion and abjection. Mixing pre- or -post-linguistic utterances, grunts, groans, screaming: a kind of secular glossolalia chaotically interwoven with whalesong, deep techno and political oratory.

Kiesler’s longest-running project was Endless House, a single-family dwelling whose biomorphic form and lack of corners strongly contrasted with the hard geometric edges that defined most modern architecture of the time. He sought to design a structure responsive to the occupants’ functional and spiritual requirements. He developed his ideas for the house over several decades, creating numerous sketches and models. Although plans were made to build a to-scale model in MoMA’s Sculpture Garden in 1958, they did not materialize, and the project remains unrealized. Nonetheless, Kiesler’s Endless House concept was highly influential and stands as a strong expression of his bold statement: “Form does not follow function. Function follows vision. Vision follows reality.”

video

Using a hand-picked assortment fashion stills, Venezuelan Art Director Gilber Franco manipulates the oft-generic photo form into a slurred revision that invokes the spirit of carnival mirrors.

梅拉妮·柏娜桥
waiting for something beautiful to happen
“[…]My work is an irregular impulse of experiences and aesthetic enjoyments stemming from the questions I have and the things that I know. I am not interested in a particular truth or a common reality, but I do have to understand and embody my truth, which I find from looking within. Although these things might be universal, consequently, questioning myself leads to the act of questioning you. Nothing should control the spirit…[…]”

Cages
Rothschild’s practice involves both conceptual and socio-political ideas alongside traditional approaches to making sculpture. Through an investigation into form and materiality, her works balance, stack, wrap and knot materials around geometric shapes and structures – such materials that often appear to transcend their physical limitations, hover between representation, symbolism and actual form. By deliberately destabilizing physical and visual characteristics in her work, Rothschild not only questions the aesthetics of art, in particular minimalism, but also those of belief in social liberation and spiritual movements.

Levitating Woman
The way American artist Matt Johnson (born 1978) experiments with shapes and materials is apt to take the spectator by surprise. His creations are endowed with whimsical as well as subtle aspects. Drawn towards the mysterious and spiritual, Johnson remains deeply rooted in art history as he comments on life’s complexities. He often chooses materials that seem to conflict with his subjects.

MIST
The Prayer
MIST envisions a world in which mass extinction has accelerated to a point of no return; where non-human beings have become spiritual, capable of self-transcendence and mystical experience, because they have no other choice. It is as if promethean punishment (the trauma of reason) were visited on them for humanity’s crimes in the pursuit of planetary mastery.”