News

Tirana Floating Tours is both an application and an archive for mobile phones and the web, initiated and implemented by Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art and supported by the Municipality of Tirana. It is an extension of Tirana Floating Archive and was developed in the framework of the Beyond Matter EU collaboration project, co-funded by Creative Europe. The TFT application consists of four tours through which users can visit different locations around the city of Tirana. The tours lead viewers through historically and architecturally relevant places and additionally offer the possibility to experience present and past art interventions in public spaces.

Introducing the publication “Beyond Matter, Within Space. Curatorial and Art Mediation Techniques on the Verge of Virtual Reality”. The book comprises texts and interviews documenting the broad range of project activities and outcomes, and includes essays by researchers and professionals that expand on the theoretical foundations of the project.

On July 8, Beyond Matter will be part of the Moviment festival (May 3–July 14) that is being organized by the Centre Pompidou in Paris. How have shifts in technology led to intangible, profound changes in our experience? For the time of an afternoon, the Centre Pompidou and the ZKM Karlsruhe revisit two major exhibitions, “Les Immatériaux” (1985) and “Iconoclash” (2002), along with the featured artists.

We are delighted to announce that in the context of the traveling exhibition Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter, the Centre Pompidou presents « Les immatériaux » Aperçus d’une manifestation postmoderne au Centre Pompidou from July 6 to October 30, 2023.

The Beyond Matter project will be part of the 28th edition of ISEA, International Symposium on Electronic Art taking place in Paris 16-21 May 2023.

Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter finissage at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
April 21-22-23, 2023

For the closing of the exhibition Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter at ZKM | Karlsruhe, we have put together a rich program of workshops, guided tours, lectures, and performances that reflect on the research questions raised by the project and present a broad spectrum of thematic connections.

We invite cultural practitioners and researchers from academic and professional contexts to join the second workshop organized within the framework of the exhibition Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter. Past Exhibitions as Digital Experiences.

Lecture Hall of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, free entry

Immerse! is an international group exhibition about the various facets and epistemological, cognitive and political implications of immersion that are made possible through computation today.

The exhibition Immerse! is open at Tallinn Art Hall’s Lasnamäe Pavilion from 18 February to 30 April.

We invite cultural practitioners and researchers from academic and professional contexts to join the first workshop organized within the framework of the exhibition Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter. Past Exhibitions as Digital Experiences.

Lecture Hall of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, free entry

We are glad to announce a new three-part webinar series that will take place online in the context of the exhibition Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter. What matters for virtual museums? aims to promote the exchange between museums and art institutions on topics relating to the possibilities for the museological presentation of digital content in physical and virtual exhibition spaces.

The online webinars are free to attend.

With »Iconoclash Slow Squeeze«, the artist Carolyn Kirschner explores so-called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Responses, or ASMR for short – tinglingly pleasant reactions that can be triggered by auditory and visual stimuli that most people perceive during relaxation, calming and well-being.
The project was developed within the framework of the Beyond Matter Residency Program at ZKM | Hertz-Lab.

The hybrid event took place on 24 Nov 2022 at Hybrid Stage, Harald Herlin Learning Centre, Aalto University.

Opening of ZKM | Center for Art and Media’s latest exhibition, Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter. Past Exhibitions as Digital Experiences, on December 2, 2022 at 7:00 pm at the Media Theater.

Digitality skews the linearity of time when a computer-generated simulation brings a past environment back to life.

ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
December 3, 2022 – April 23, 2023

Fri, October 07, 2022 7 pm CEST

British artist and researcher Carolyn Kirschner will present her project »Iconoclash Slow Squeeze« created during the Beyond Matter Residency program and answer related questions about, among others, the relationship between materiality, representation and physical stimulation in conversation with Dr. Cecilia Preiss, research associate at the ZKM | Hertz-Lab.

In the context of Manifesta Biennial, Tirana Art Lab organized a talk on the 23 of July at 3:00 pm at the Center for Narrative Practice in Prishtina.

The conversation will debate issues raised by the exhibition Matter, Non-Matter, Anti-Matter on view in Tirana at the Tulla – Culture Center.

Tirana Art Lab is glad to welcome you on Wednesday 20 of July to the Tulla – Culture Center at 7:30pm to join the open conversation about the exhibition Matter, Non-Matter, Anti-Matter on view until the 28 of August 2022.

On Monday, June 27th 2022 an online conversation with Zach Blas, the winner of the Residency Programme at Tallinn Art Hall, which is part of the large-scale cooperation project BEYOND MATTER – Cultural Heritage on the Verge of Virtual Reality took place. The conversation was moderated by Tallinn Art Hall curator Corina L. Apostol and artist, writer and educator Kristaps Ancāns.

Tuesday 5 of July from 17:00 (UTC+3) please join us for an online lecture with Zach Blas the winner of the Beyond Matter Residency Programme at Tallinn Art Hall.
Blas’s residency project looks at aspects of religion that are uncannily mirrored in contemporary cultures of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

This event is free of charge, will take place in English and will be recorded.

From 10–18 June 2022 within the program of the New European Bauhaus Festival – side events, ESPRONCEDA – Institute of Art & Culture organized a major exhibition “DIGITAL AWARENESS. From education to social impact and human identity” and workshops in collaboration with national and international entities. Aalto University participated in the exhibition showcasing “Heritage as source of knowledge in art and design education” by Lily Diaz-Kommonen and Cvijeta Miljak

The ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe took part in the first edition of the Festival of the New European Bauhaus in Brussels, where it presented the Beyond Matter project from 9 to 11 June 2022.

An international audience attended the festival and could explore the reconstructions of the past exhibitions “Les Immatériaux” (Centre Pompidou, 1985) and “Iconoclash” (ZKM | Karlsruhe, 2002) and enjoy an immersive and novel approach to digital exhibition practices.

Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art, Tulla – Culture Center and Beyond Matter EU present: “Matter, Non-Matter, Anti-Matter” Exhibition of Artists in Residency HUNITI GOLDOX, Olson Lamaj, Valentina Peri & Immaterial Display.

Opening Saturday 25th of June 7:30 PM at Tulla – Culture Center

The Beyond Matter project will be represented at ISEA, International Symposium on Electronic Art, one of the most important annual events worldwide dedicated to the crossroads where art, design, science, technology and society meet. The main theme this year, “Possibles”, engages in the notion of openness and movement: opening an unfinished world of futures before us and presenting pasts behind us.

In the context of the Beyond Matter project, ZKM | Karlsruhe will participate in the first edition of the New European Bauhaus Festival in Brussels (Gare Maritime) from 9 to 12 June 2022.
The festival format is composed of both live and online formats.

Attendance to the festival is free of charge

On Thursday, 19 May, from 10:00 AM Helsinki, a hybrid discussion will be held and will debate important questions raised by the »Matter, Non-Matter, Anti-Matter. Past Exhibitions as Digital Experiences« installation. Beyond Matter project will be represented by the head of the project, curator at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Livia Nolasco-Rózsás that will open up a conversation with Marcella Lista and Julie Champion Lagadec from Centre Pompidou and with Lily Diaz-Kommonen and Cvijeta Miljak from Aalto University.

Together with the design studio The Rodina, ZKM | Hertz Lab is implementing a novel interactive software with which to offer guided tours inside the online exhibition »Spatial Affairs. Worlding – A tér világlása«.

The new software will be used during the first online workshop on May 15, 2022

Friday 15 April, 7 p.m
Tulla – Culture Center

Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art and Tulla – Culture Center have the pleasure to invite you for a presentation and conversation with artist duo HUNITI GOLDOX, currently in residency at ​​Tirana Art Lab as part of the Beyond Matter project.

On Monday, April 11th, from 6 pm, please join us for an online panel discussion with artists Agate Tūna, Alise Putniņa, Krišjānis Elviks and Madara Gruntmane from the POST MA program (Art Academy of Latvia) offering practice-based perspectives of younger generation in art on the virtual condition and its applications in present-day art in the context of the Baltics. The conversation will be moderated by Corina L. Apostol, curator at Tallinn Art Hall, and artist and writer Kristaps Ancāns.

We welcome you to visit and experience the installation Matter, Non-Matter, Anti-Matter. Past Exhibitions as Digital Experiences.

The opening of the exhibition, augmented with a panel discussion, will be held on Thursday 17 March from 17:00-19:00 o’clock, and will take place in the main lobby of the Väre-building at Otaniemi campus where the exhibition will be on view from 14-29 March.

On March 2nd 2022 an online conversation with the artist and filmmaker Shu Lea Cheang took place. It was moderated by Tallinn Art Hall curator Corina L. Apostol and artist and writer Kristaps Ancāns.

Aalto University to present innovative virtual models of legendary art exhibitions.

From Monday 14 March we welcome you to visit and experience the installation Matter, Non-Matter, Anti-Matter. Past Exhibitions as Digital Experiences, which will start its Finnish tour from the main lobby of the Väre-building at Otaniemi campus. The opening of the exhibition, augmented with a panel discussion, will be held on Thursday 17 March from 17:00-19:00 o’clock.

On Wednesday, March 2nd, from 6 pm (UTC +2), please join us for a conversation with the artist, filmmaker Shu Lea Cheang, moderated by Tallinn Art Hall curator Corina L. Apostol and artist and writer Kristaps Ancāns.

Tirana Floating Archive (TFA) is a digital platform initiated by Tirana Art Lab, documenting around 40 past and present art occurrences in public space in Tirana from the 2002 until today. Under a curated structure, TFA has retraced and through a heretical approach, animated art interventions by the independent art scene, which stand for artistic quality and a meaningful contribution to public debates.

On Monday, 10 January, from 6 pm, please join us for a conversation with philosopher, essayist, art critic, media theorist Boris Groys, debating the issues raised by the novel installation Matter, Non-Matter, Anti-Matter which showcases digital models of past exhibitions on a custom-made display, also using Augmented Reality. The conversation will be moderated by Corina L. Apostol, curator at Tallinn Art Hall, and artist and writer Kristaps Ancāns.

On November 19th 2021 a panel discussion with artists Kristaps Ancāns, Laura Kuusk, and filmmaker and scholar Dr. Pia Tikka took place in Tallinn Art Hall. The panelists debated issues posed by the novel installation “Matter, Non-Matter, Anti-Matter” which showcases digital models of past exhibitions on a custom-made display as well as via Augmented Reality.
The installation “Matter, Non-Matter, Anti-Matter” can be experienced in the lobby of the Tallinn Art Hall until 16.01.2022.

We are glad to share the event documentation video of the unique one-off tour ‘Unio Mystica’ that took place in Tallinn in October 2021. The storytelling event concluded the two-month residency research of contemporary art curator Helen Kaplinsky at Tallinn Art Hall for international project Beyond Matter, exploring the virtual technological and mystical visions of women.

November 11, 2021 – January 16, 2022, Tallinn Art Hall

Digitality skews the linearity of time when a computer-generated simulation brings a past environment back to life.
If past exhibitions, that are spatial manifestations of thought processes, are resurrected digitally, history turns into a virtual experience. Chronologies could be reversed, reconstructed, and built anew in a computer-generated space. Meanwhile ephemera become withheld in time due to their digital conservation.

Wednesday 01.12.2021, 7pm CET
Online talk with Andreas Broeckmann, Francesca Gallo and Philippe Bettinelli.
In the context of the series of talks »BEYOND MATTER? – A Revival of Clashes between Materiality and Representation« the Art Historians Andreas Broeckmann and Francesca Gallo will talk in depth about Les Immatériaux pioneering exhibition which took place at the Centre Pompidou in 1985.

Launching and Opening, Friday 19 November 2021, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Dj Set by La Mer, 8:30 – 10:30 pm
Laboratory of Bulevard Art and Media Institute
Bulevardi Zogu I, Nr. 13, 1001 Tirana

Panel Discussion “Matter, Non-Matter, Anti-Matter. Past Exhibitions as Digital Experiences” at Tallinn Art Hall, in the framework of Beyond Matter.

On Friday, November 19th, from 17:00 please join us for a panel discussion with artists Kristaps Ancāns, Laura Kuusk, and filmmaker and scholar Dr. Pia Tikka which will debate issues posed by the novel installation “Matter, Non-Matter, Anti-Matter” which showcases digital models of past exhibitions on a custom-made display as well as via Augmented Reality.

Online opening: November 4, 2021
Call Signs, 2021, by Jazmina Figueroa is part machine-generated and part sensorial. It is based on the subversive, radical traditions of expanded media for information exchange and transference. The project concludes the two-month residency research of Jazmina Figueroa at ZKM | Karlsruhe within the framework of Beyond Matter, an international, collaborative, practice-based research project.

Exhibition Artists in Residency 2020-2021
Beyond Matter
Donika Çina / Hanna Hildebrand / Alexander Walmsley
Curated by Adela Demetja

Opening 4 November 6:30 p.m
4-20 November 2021

Opening: October 26
We invite you to join us for a unique one-off tour ‘Unio Mystica’ bringing together mythologies and everyday stories of medieval women with contemporary mystical feminist narratives. You will be immersed, through performance and virtual reality, in confounding somatic practices and fantastical worlds that draw upon different experiences of embodying femininity – in life and death.

Online opening: September 15
A first preview of Pandemonium, a project by Ami Clarke, developed throughout her residency at ZKM | Karlsruhe is now online. Pandemonium considers the interdependencies that ripple through biomedia and the online mediasphere, revealed by the financiers tool of sentiment and emotion analysis that exemplify our probabilistic times.

Online opening: September 1
Tirana Time Capsule #2 was created by Alex Walmsley during his residency at Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art. Tirana Time Capsule #2 is a virtual web-based environment composed of 3D scans and audio field recordings from the Kombinat neighbourhood in Tirana, Albania. The work investigates the ways in which high-fidelity digital recording techniques appropriate and reconstruct public space in the virtual sphere and through subjective remaking can become a space where personal memory and community heritage merge.

We are very happy to share the documentation of the open residency showcase with artists Laura Kuusk and Camille Laurelli, the winners of the second Beyond Matter Residency Programme at Tallinn Art Hall. The showcase of the residency took place on Wednesday, June 30th in the studio of the Estonian Artists’ Association.

Starting from September 2021 duo HUNITI GOLDOX, Olson Lamaj and Valentina Peri, will spend two months in residency at Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art where they will develop new works reflecting on Virtual Reality contributing artistically to the discourse generated by the project BEYOND MATTER.

From September 2021, writer Jazmina Figueroa and artist Carolyn Kirschner will each spend two months in residency at ZKM Hertz-Lab. The selected residents, chosen from over 240 applicants, will develop new works that reflect on Virtual Reality contributing artistically to the discourse generated by the BEYOND MATTER project.

From September 2021, curator Helen Kaplinsky and artist Zach Blas will each spend two months in residency at Tallinn Art Hall. The selected residents, chosen from over 240 applicants, will develop new works that reflect on Virtual Reality contributing artistically to the discourse generated by the BEYOND MATTER project.

HyMEx online – May 6–7, 2021 | Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art

Join the HyMEx online symposium’s programme

HyMEx – Symposium
Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art
May 6-7, 2021 // Budapest (Hungary)

Hybrid Museum Experience Symposium // aims to bring together leading researchers, scholars in digital and experimental museology, in collection care, curatorial practice, as well as researchers from a broad spectrum of disciplines to exchange views on challenging situations and latest innovations in the field of hybrid museum experiences, with a focus on contemporary art.

HyMEx – Hybrid Museum Experience Symposium
Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art
May 6-7, 2021 // Budapest (Hungary)
The programme of the Symposium is composed of a number of invited international speakers, as well as of the participation of speakers chosen through a call for papers procedure.

Thu, 29.04.2021 – Sun, 27.06.2021
The exhibition »Spatial Affairs« at Ludwig Múzeum Budapest explores artistic reactions to the questions of spatiality and spatial perception, especially in times of computer-generated virtual reality.

Tallinn Art Hall, Tirana Art Lab Center for Contemporary Art, and the Hertz-Lab of the ZKM I Center for Art and Media are jointly calling for European art practitioners / theoreticians to apply for one of three production residencies taking place in Karlsruhe, Tallinn, and Tirana.
Call open until: April 30, 2021

Mon, 01.03.2021, 6 pm CET
Online via live stream, free entry
Online Talk with Peter Weibel and Manfred Wolff-Plottegg
In the context of the series of talks »BEYOND MATTER? – A Revival of Clashes between Materiality and Representation«, Peter Weibel and Manfred Wolff-Plottegg reflect on the scenography of the »Iconoclash« exhibition, its development process and possible impact on the planned digital exhibition model.

Mon, 15.02.2021, 6 pm CET
Online via live stream, free entry
Online Talk with Peter Galison
In the context of the series of talks »BEYOND MATTER? – A Revival of Clashes between Materiality and Representation«, Peter Galison talks about his contribution to the exhibition »Iconoclash« and the possibilities of the »Iconoclash« model, as well as his work since then, such as his research and films on black hole imaging.

The transmogrified entity of the museum: how to deconstruct and reconstruct the hybrid
experience through the involvement of pluridisciplinary angles and by the means of physical,
virtual, spatial and socio-political exposures.

Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art (Budapest) organizes on May 6-7, 2021 the
HyMEx // Hybrid Museum Experience Symposium

Mon, 14.12.2020, 6pm CET
Online via live stream, free entry
Online Talk with Sabine Himmelsbach
In the context of the series of talks »BEYOND MATTER? – A Revival of Clashes between Materiality and Representation«, Sabine Himmelsbach remembers the preparatory phase for the exhibition »Iconoclash«. With a leap into the present, she shares her current practice as the director of H3K (Haus der elektronische Künste Basel), focusing on the institution’s reaction to the recent lockdowns and the possible ramifications of these measures.

Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás discusses the “virtual condition” in curating. A subject that became unexpectedly topical due to the lockdown in early 2020 in various countries. Museums and exhibition spaces had to close their physical premises but could still reach their audience online. Presence seemed to strike a bargain with absence even if spatial affairs are still the very essence and means of curating. She will introduce the international, collaborative, practice-based research project BEYOND MATTER that reflects on this ongoing shift towards the virtual condition, which was just accelerated in 2020.

A research-performance (“e)spiritu-virtu” with Dennis Dizon took place at Tallinn Art Hall in October 2020.

Dennis Dizon was the winner of the first Residency Programme at Tallinn Art Hall, which is part of the large-scale cooperation project BEYOND MATTER. It is dedicated to novel, digital approaches to exhibition revival, documentation and dissemination, as well as the artistic, curatorial and museological development of the opportunities presented by virtual representation.

In the context of the series of talks »BEYOND MATTER? – A Revival of Clashes between Materiality and Representation« Boris Groys discusses his contribution to the exhibition »Iconoclash«, as well as the consequences of a digital model or reenactment of the exhibition, namely the feeling of nostalgia being evoked by such endeavors.

On October 21, 2020, participants took part in V/RITUAL: Collective Complexity, organized by Beyond Matter resident Dennis Dizon at Feministeerium in Tallinn. Dennis runs MATTERS OF, a platform that rethinks curatorial formats and audience engagement in institutional public programming. 

Starting from September 2020 artists Denis Dizon and Laura Kuusk & Camille Laurelli will each spend two months in residency at the Tallinn Art Hall. The selected artists, chosen from over 200 applicants, will develop new works reflecting on Virtual Reality contributing artistically to the discourse generated by the project BEYOND MATTER.

Tallinn Art Hall, Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art and the ZKM I Center for Art and Media are proud to jointly announce three production residencies taking place in Karlsruhe, Tallinn, and Tirana.

In preparation for the digital revival of the two exhibitions, Les Immatériaux (Centre Pompidou, 1985) and Iconoclash (ZKM | Karlsruhe, 2002), a series of discussions are taking place throughout 2020, bringing outstanding thinkers, curators, and art historians together to probe the most topical questions around the digital revival of past spatial assemblages.

Starting from September 2020 artists Donika Çina, Hanna Hildebrand and Alex Walmsley will each spend two months in residency at Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art. The selected artists, chosen from over 200 applicants, will develop new works reflecting on Virtual Reality contributing artistically to the discourse generated by the project BEYOND MATTER.

As part of BEYOND MATTER, a hybrid exhibition project called ‘Immaterial Display’ will be developed in collaboration with the Centre Pomidou Paris, in which the latest methods of documenting, preserving and mediating cultural assets will be tested and presented for use in a museum context.

Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás, head of the BEYOND MATTER project, held an online video lecture Revival of Clashes in Representation and Materiality – as a part of Systems of Representation MA course taught by professor Lily Díaz-Kommonen

The Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art celebrated the Media Art Preservation project in 2020 with a two-day MAPS 2020 conference on 13–14 February 2020. Continuing the work revolved around the conversation and the preservation of media art, started in 2015, involving international conservators, art historians and experts.

Digital technologies like XR, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence are effectively disrupting how arts and culture are being created, distributed and perceived. New technologies hold the promise of making art and culture more accessible to audiences and making the share of revenue for rights holders and creators more transparent and reliable. It is also helping museums and galleries to increase their reach, making them more attractive to younger generations.