The exhibition Immerse! is realised within the framework of Beyond Matter, an international collaborative practice-based research project that brings cultural heritage and culture in development to the verge of virtual reality. Tallinn Art Hall has been part of this project since 2019, and the upcoming exhibition and catalogue mark the conclusion of this multi-year endeavour. This common undertaking seeks to engage with a contemporary shift – largely attributable to the rapid development, ubiquitous presence, and use of computation and information technology – in the production and mediation of visual art within institutional frameworks.
Via the exhibition and the catalogue accompanying it, viewers and readers are asked to reconsider their relationship to the virtual dimensions of reality, by posing questions such as: How can virtual reality, understanding it as computer-generated public space in all forms possible, contribute to current political and social discourses? What is the potential of virtual reality within the field of art?
Throughout the three-year collaboration, curators Corina L. Apostol (Tallinn Art Hall) and Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás (ZKM I Karlsruhe) have gathered prominent insights with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe and on the inclusion of the artistic projects conceived and realised for the Beyond Matter residency program that have emerged at this international thematic exhibition. It showcases various works of emerging and established contemporary artists engaging with the socio-political or environmental connotations of digital immersion.
Participating artists: Kristaps Ancāns (LV/UK), Zach Blas (US/CA), Guim Camps (ES/CO), Ami Clarke (UK), Dennis Dizon (PH/ES), Laureta Hajrullahu (XK), Hanna Hildebrand (IT/CH), Laura Kuusk (EE) & Camille Laurelli (FR/EE), Olson Lamaj (AL), Andrii Linik (UA), Anna Manankina (UA/DE), Alyona Movko-Mägi (EE), Bahar Noorizadeh (CA/IR/UK), Shelley Odradek (PL/US), Kirill Savchenkov, Tomo Savić-Gecan (HR/NL), Jonas Staal (NL/GR), Ivar Veermäe (EE/DE) and Ksenia Yurkova (RU/AT).
*Opening weekend events
From February 17 to 19th the lead story from a different, randomly selected global news source will provide the data that feeds an artificial intelligence algorithm, which in turn will prescribe the time, location, duration, movements, and thoughts of a group of performers in the Tallinn Art Hall Lasnamae Pavilion to constitute Tomo Savić-Gecan’s “Untitled 2022/2023.” Savić-Gecan piece was first presented at the 2022 Venice Art Biennale, under the title “Untitled (Croatian Pavilio