le taxi pour l’avenir heureux
Benjamin Sandro Jantzen
Sat, August 02 – Sun, September 14, 2025
- Location
- Media Lounge
- Entrance fee
- Free admission
Benjamin Sandro Jantzen’s colorful and surreal wall graphic poses a riddle: Is “the taxi for a happy future,” as the title suggests, truly hidden within the teeming image, or should the work rather be understood as a guide for seeking something that reaches far beyond the visible landscape?
The morphed figures and characters are tied to meaningful content. Jantzen’s artistic focus is a visual exploration of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
But how can such an all-encompassing vision of a better world be vividly brought to life – one that addresses us both as those affected and as potential agents of change? Jantzen employs the artistic strategy of alienation. Using the tool of prompt-based AI, he generated “images within the realm of the possible” and collaged this virtual raw material into dense, symbolic metamorphoses that offer a more poetic access point than science-based infographics.
Jantzen’s multi-part media art project not only showcases the current capabilities of AI-generated imagery. It also raises the unsettling question of whether AI as a tool can inspire new visions – or rather contributes to the distortion of reality. The work creates multiple connections between the physical and the virtual, linking various contexts of the city with current media technologies such as computer-generated images, immersive video mapping, and an augmented reality app.
To decode the wall collage, use the explanatory graphic on the media table next to the touchscreen display. For details on each goal in English, click on the icons of the individual goals on the touchscreen
Alternatively, try out the free augmented reality app ARTIVIVE on your smartphone. Your device will act as a magnifying glass, allowing you to scan the wall motifs directly for information on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Download the ARTIVIVE app
The still image le taxi pour l’avenir heureux, featured in the ZKM installation, will be brought to life each evening as a large-scale projection mapping on the façade of Karlsruhe Palace during the Schlosslichtspiele Light Festival, from August 14 to September 14, 2025. Three additional presentations of the work can be visited at the dm store on Europaplatz, at Schlossplatz, and at the Karlsruhe Tourist Information Center.
le taxi pour l’avenir heureux received this year’s dm-Award connecting worlds and is presented as part of Karlsruhe’s City of Media Art exhibition Media art is here.
Further information:
