"An expedition without borders" - this is how its organizers write about the recently opened exhibition within the first edition of the Culture Futura Biennial. And indeed there is something in it. Although it was integrated into the defined gallery space of the Malopolska Garden of Art, through its formula it takes viewers to.... Well, exactly, where to?
Culture Futura. Interdisciplinary Biennial of Art and Technology of the Future
photo: Bartek Barczyk
The biennial, as Aleksander Janicki, the initiative's progenitor, explained at the opening, is about the space where different competencies meet. The real world with the virtual world.
The biennial is the first holistic venture dedicated to the art and technology of the future, combining multisensory installations, large-format projections, mapping, theater and new media art: VR, AI, AR and innovations in the creative industry, the organizers explained.
The core of the event was a competition announced by the Juliusz Słowacki Theater in Krakow earlier this year, in which ideas were sought that fit the e-POLIS slogan - the city of the future realized in the form of 3D virtual reality applications that can be viewed using VR glasses. Proposals touching on topics such as virtual reality, augmented reality or artificial intelligence were evaluated by a jury chaired by Aleksander Janicki and composed of Prof. Akiko Kasuya (Kyoto City University of Art), Prof. Andrzej Jajszczyk (Polish Academy of Sciences) and Prof. Piotr Krajewski (WRO Center).
Culture Futura. Interdisciplinary Biennial of Art and Technology of the Future
photo: Bartek Barczyk
Eleven proposals were selected - "access points" that, like futuristic capsules, transport the viewer to a completely different space, a reality in which he or she faces alone what the awarded artists have prepared.
Joanne Popinska, author of the intimate documentary "The Choice," touches on topics related to abortion; Karolina Kowalska, in collaboration with Mat Barski, in her work "Abstrakttropik," talks about the biosphere and plants as a missing element of modern urban spaces; Lena Witkowska in "Homo Affectus" presents the result of a two-year process in which she collected statements and works in the form of land art by artists from all over the world on the vision of Sentient Man; Misha Kolbe created a VR game to propose to his girlfriend, and Palina Kamarova in "Lunatic" invites viewers into a world of dreams and fantasies. "Rost" by Pawel Szarzynski and Anna Roguska is an experiment that touches on the problem of urban overpopulation, Lukasz Maciaszkiewicz in "Neverland 2100" spreads visions of the world in 80 years, Filip Klechowski created the architecture of the future in the "e-City" project after a conversation with GPT Chat, while Piotr Madej in "Perception of Spheres" lets us drift through the Solar System, and Rafal Kruszka 's "User Agreement" project takes us into the interactive space of the virtual world. "Nocc" is, in the words of authors Sandra Frydrysiak and Weronika Lewandowska, "a virtual, erotic poem" inviting us to experience poetry and dance.
Culture Futura. Interdisciplinary Biennial of Art and Technology of the Future
photo: Bartek Barczyk
Cutting us off from the outside world,VR goggles allow us to immerse our senses in the visions proposed by the creators. Entering the small grassy circle marking the successive positions in the gallery space is each time like crossing a new threshold - although we don't know what we will encounter there, we set off on this journey to the future with curiosity.
The exhibition will be open until November 28, 2023 at the Malopolska Garden of Art in Krakow.
The exhibition is part of the project Culture Futura. Interdisciplinary Biennial of Art and Technology of the Future. The project is co-financed by the Culture Program, Action 2 "Improving access to culture and the arts" under the EEA 2014-2021.
