The UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts Karlsruhe is exhibiting media art free of charge in the public space once again this year. Under the title Media art is here, public squares, façades and shop windows will be transformed into a digital stage from August 15 to September 15, 2024, presenting installations, videos and performances as well as interdisciplinary projects.
A significant aspect of Media art is here is its accessibility. The exhibition is free of charge and open to all, providing a broad platform for the exchange and participation of contemporary media art. The City of Karlsruhe’s annual Project Funding Program for Media Art plays a central role by enabling artists to realise their creative visions and present them to the public. In this way, Media art is here contributes to cultural diversity and strengthens the inclusive character of the city of Karlsruhe as a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts.
The exhibition covers a broad spectrum of themes and artistic approaches that illuminate the diverse potential of media art and its social significance. A central theme of this show is the relationship between humans and nature as well as reflections on gender roles and ecological issues. Desiree Kabis‘ Ancient Connections is based on a sound artwork that digitally brings the Samán tree in the Colombian Museo La Tertulia to Karlsruhe. This tree, which changes its gender depending on the season, explores queerness and people’s relationship with nature. In Between Dreams and Reality, Anna-Lina Helsen leads the viewer into a hybrid world that picks up on influences from the Anthropocene and solarpunk. A rotating object, the “Dream Machine”, changes depending on the viewer’s movements and poses questions about the future and the possibilities of human-machine interaction. This symbiosis is reinforced by the use of recycled and natural materials, which emphasises sustainability and the creative use of resources.
Another thematic focus is on the visualisation of history and social structures. Whose Stories by Vera Gärtner, Mio Kojima and Hanna Müller offers a feminist mapping of Karlsruhe and sheds light on the gender imbalance in the naming of streets and public spaces. This work extends the analogue “Feminist Mapping” plan with digital formats such as sound works and interactive websites to promote an understanding of the city as a social and emotional space. In contrast, the project Radio-Choreography#2: Acts of Transmission by Mira Hirtz and Netta Weiser explores the translation of dance into sound and the possibilities of making silenced stories audible. This interdisciplinary work combines performative interventions and live radio broadcasts and asks how the body and media art can interact with each other.
The exhibition also includes works that deal with ecological and technological themes. In sleeping trees, Alex Besta projects bark structures onto the pillars of the protestant city church and thematises the connection between architecture and nature. The international project Bee Boarding School combines art, ecology and alternative forms of economy through participatory workshops. In Tides of Memories – The Other Time I Drowned, Karolina Sobel and Helin Ulas explore the dreams of a fictional character from the perspective of water, while Fungal Frequencies by SurrealLabor examines the signal processing of mycelium and its translation into electronic networks.
Water is also the subject of two other media artworks in and in front of the Kinemathek Karlsruhe. Jihye Jang’s interactive installation Natural Flow, consisting of over 50,000 pixels on 16 LED panels, visualises the human-influenced phenomena in nature and allows viewers to influence the wave movements through their presence. In the interior of the Kinemathek, AGISTRILOGY depicts the beauty of the sea in various states on the Phono-Lux machine, creating subtle, sensual, threatening and moving impressions inspired by avant-garde filmmaker James Benning.
The interactive media art installation Particles Ensemble by Overlapping Studio innovatively diffuses the lines between digital art and physical spaces. The project, which won the dm-Award connecting worlds, will be displayed on the façade of Karlsruhe Palace. Two so-called totems at the ZKM I Karlsruhe and at the Karlsruhe Tourist Information expand the project into the city.
In Screentime, Hendrik Vogel, Kilian Kretschmer, and his team thematise self-reflection through digital media and ask how digital technologies influence our self-image. Finally, New Fossils by Paris Díaz and Gerardo Nolasco-Rózsás uses an augmented reality installation to encourage reflection on the ecological footprint of the cities of Guadalajara and Karlsruhe.
As part of the exhibition, the UNESCO City of Media Arts Karlsruhe Office offers free guided bicycle tours to various stations in the city centre. Please check the dates here.
The work Radio-Choreography#2: Acts of Transmission by Mira Hirtz and Netta Weiser can already be seen from June 20 at the Badischer Kunstverein and Tides of Memories by Karolina Sobel and Helin Ulas will also be shown early on August 3 at the ZKM, just in time for this year’s KAMUNA.
The presentation of Media art is here is realised by the Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Karlsruhe in close cooperation with the Karlsruhe Marketing und Event GmbH and the ZKM | Center for Art and Media.
With the kind support of karlsruhe.digital in the realisation of the project Fungal Frequencies and the Werner-Stober-Stiftung in the realisation of the project sleeping trees.
Supported by: Badischer Kunstverein, burger Inneneinrichtung, COLA TAXI OKAY, Hoepfner Stiftung, KIT Fakultät für Mathematik, Stadtkirche Karlsruhe, TRIANGEL Open Space.
