Exhibition Art
—
Past

Connecting

Past
A dark room with two large screens showing close-ups of eyes, a round illuminated pool in the centre and a coloured droplet shape suspended above it. Cables hang around the installation.
© Kristien Daem
© Kristien Daem

This event ran from 06.10.2023 to 03.12.2023. But wait, there's always more at Kanal! Check out the calendar.

Technology is omnipresent in our daily lives, but what do our online relationships actually represent? How do we inhabit a community through an app? What does it mean to be friends through platforms and avatars? And is there room for love in the metaverse? Connecting traces the links between physical reality and the digital world.

Date
—
Type
Exhibition Art
Location
K1, Avenue du Port-Havenlaan 1, 1000 Brussels
  • A home theater room with blue lighting, a large screen showing a city scene with winged models, and several dark bean bag chairs on the floor.
    © Kristien Daem
  • A person sits on a white, round stool facing a large screen displaying a sunset scene over water with islands and a figure in the foreground.
    © Kristien Daem
  • A vertical artwork displaying a series of human faces merged and distorted is mounted next to a staircase in a dimly lit interior space.
    © Kristien Daem
  • A large digital abstract artwork is displayed on a screen in a dark, industrial-style room with minimal lighting.
    © Kristien Daem
  • A pyramid-shaped art installation with pink and gold textured surfaces stands in a dark room; various objects are attached to its sides.
    © Kristien Daem
  • A dark room features a large screen displaying an abstract image and two white round seats next to a reflective surface on the floor.
    © Kristien Daem
  • A dark room with green, stones as seats and a large screen displaying an outdoor scene with a pink sky and trees and a figure wearing a skull mask and a large feathered headdres.
    © Kristien Daem

Until recently, digital tools were nothing more than translations of physical applications: mail became e-mail, shopping increasingly happened online, banks funneled people to their apps. Then Web 2.0 and social media gradually changed the spaces where we interact. However the transformation did not end there and the boundaries between digital and physical worlds continued to blur. Today we converse on ChatGPT, draw up contracts via blockchain technology, and play games in boundless virtual universes.

The digital world keeps building where the physical world ends. Living and non-living entities become interconnected, much like in animistic belief systems and cosmologies where non-human forms like rivers, mountains, animals, and stones have long been revered for their vitality and potential. Emotion, intimacy, and attention are no longer inherently human qualities. This obscuration of what it means to be alive generates a form of worldbuilding that surpasses human limitations.

Connecting imagines new interdependencies between humans and non-humans. These connections expand and reshape our understanding of affection, kinship, and relationships. In investigating this new texture of experience, artists in the exhibition reflect on the transformative quality of technology in shaping our emotional worlds.

Eva L’Hoest, What Hath God Wrought? (film), 2023

Video, color, sound. 15 min

The newly commissioned work by Eva L’Hoest is a film that unravels the history of the undersea cable network supporting the infrastructure of the digital era. In What Hath God Wrought? (film), the cables embody the passage of time from their inception as telegraph lines to the SunCable project; an energy and infrastructural project set to link the world’s largest solar farm in Australia's Northern Territory to Singapore, providing an estimated 20% of the Asian metropolis’ energy. Crossing the Indonesian archipelago, the SunCable charts a course across continents. Entangled in a web of ethical issues and colonial history, the piece weaves together historical narratives and contemporary imagery. Blending 16mm film and CGI the film traces the evolution of energy, animism, and resources, seen through the lens of the digital age.

Written, directed and edited by Eva L’Hoest and James Vaughan / Cinematography by Dimitri Zaunders / Music performed and composed by John Also Bennett / Voice narrated by Juliet Darling / Voice recorded by Paul Alkhallaf

Keiken, Angel Arcade, 2023

Online video game, color, sound

Play the game (mobile only): click here

Online, the visitor can continue the experience by playing the game Angel Arcade (2023), a collaboration with creative coders Obso1337, and an extension of Morphogenic Angels. In this game, the notion of future exists in a radically different time and space that defies our current political, societal, financial, and subjective reality. In this world, people (called "Angels") have gained post-human capabilities through the organic reengineering of their cells, which allows them to tap into non-human consciousness and merge with different species. The online game uses a combination of touch interactions and device motion. Players can move through a 3D landscape while collecting cells that enable them to alter their genetic code, becoming a Morphogenic Angel.

Co-commissioned by KANAL-Centre Pompidou and HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2023, supported by Saastamoinen Foundation / Creative Direction: Keiken / Creative Coding: Obso1337 / Sound & Music Design: Wavesovspace / Content extracted from Morphogenic Angels Chapter 1 / Made in collaboration with Mati Bratkowski, George Jasper Stone, Limbotech, 00 Zhang, Wavesovspace, Carlos Minozzi, Sophie Mars and more.

Opening hours   
Thursday  11:00-21:00
Friday  11:00-19:00
Saturday  11:00-19:00
Sunday    11:00-19:00

This exhibition takes place at K1. The toilets and the first floor are only accessible by stairs. We are deeply sorry for this inconvenience.

  • Pyramid-shaped structure display projected images of flowers and greenery surrounded by reflective walls in a dark indoor space.
    Tabita Rezaire, ULTRA WET - RECAPITULATION © Rob Battersby
  • A digitally-rendered humanoid figure with iridescent, multicolored skin stands in a snowy mountainous landscape under a dim sky.
    Keiken, Morphogenic Angels (game still).
  • A circular pool surrounded by black cables, with two vertical screens displaying human eyes and a digital drop image suspended above the pool, set against a dark background.
    Zach Blas, Profundior.
  • A dark room features a large blue sculpture resembling a lobster, with projections of eyes on a blue crusty face.
    Korakrit Arunanondchai et Alex Gvojic, Songs for Living.
Artist
,
,
,
,
,
 &