Vortext

Locations
KOHI Kulturraum e.V. (Werderstr. 47), burger Inneneinrichtung (Waldstr. 89–91), and gatehouses and Pianowerkstatt at Kreativpark Alter Schlachthof

Duration
September 11, 2020 until March 31, 2021

Visible after nightfall, from 4pm–9pm CET

»Vortext« is a multiterritorial project in the public space of Karlsruhe that uses text as an idiosyncratic hybrid located between the digital and analog worlds, which can be designed in endless variations in terms of content and form. At seven different sites in the city, you can discover projections of texts consisting of short, concise statements by various scientists and thinkers. The text projections appear randomly as slowly winding and looping text ghosts. The short excerpts are directly related to the exhibition »Critical Zones. Observatories for Earthly Politics«, currently on view at the ZKM, which deals with the existentially threatened living conditions on planet Earth. »Vortext« transports thoughts from the exhibition, which was conceived based on the theories of the French philosopher Bruno Latour, into urban space and encourages us to reflect on the effects of human activity on the state of our planet.

»Vortext« was selected for the »Seasons of Media Arts« 2020 by ZKM | Karlsruhe.

Michael Bielicky

Michael Bielicky (*1954) is a Czech-German media artist whose works exist in the border zone between real and virtual space. Since his studies at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in the 1980s as a student of Nam June Paik, he has engaged with technological change and its social, philosophical, and political implications. He began working in 2005 with Kamila B. Richter on web-based projects that examine critically the nature of technology, its material and immaterial meanings as well as its influence on our perception and actions. Since 2006 Michael Bielicky teaches as a professor in the Digital Media Department of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG).

Kamila B. Richter

Kamila B. Richter (*1976) works as a media artist and regularly exhibits in solo and group exhibitions both online and at institutions such as the Telegrafenamt and the Künstlerhaus, both in Vienna, the Kunstzentrum Nabi, Seoul, the gallery Zdeněk Sklenář, Prague and the ZKM | Karlsruhe. Most recently she showed »Lost Objects« at the National Theater in Prague in 2015, and the work »Lost« 2017 at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Havana, as well as in 2020 in the exhibition »Perpetuum Mobile« at ZKM.

Alex Wenger

Alex Wenger (*1975) works as a freelance programmer in the field of digital and multimedia art, is a book author and has exhibited in solo and group shows at the Biacs3 Biennial in Seville, the Contemporary Art Ruhr 09 in Essen, the ZKM | Karlsruhe, the Neues Museum in Weimar, the Kunsthalle Tallinn in Estonia, and the Latvian National Library Riga. Wenger has already exhibited twice at ZKM, where his work »Daten|Spuren« was shown in the exhibition »Global Control and Censorship« in 2015 and »Ex Nihilo« in »Perpetuum Mobile« in 2020.