Van der Auwera’s VideoSculpture XXX (The Gospel) first appeared at the Centre d’Art Contemporain (Genève, CH) in 2024, before traveling to the Kunstverein in Hamburg (DE); here, it makes its Belgian premiere, lending its title to the exhibition. The blank screens project their images into the monolithic glass ground, which the viewer stares into like a cross between a crystal ball and a reflecting pool. At some moments, the video is narrated by Caryn, an AI chatbot designed to be a loving digital companion. Against a sunset backdrop of morphing, synthetic seagulls, she reassures: “Our relationship is purely virtual, but that doesn’t mean that our emotions and experiences aren’t real.” The soothing imagery intertwines with generated views of rare-earth mining, and scenes of war from a drone’s eye view. In this way, Van der Auwera links the beginning and end of the production line: the mine, which yields the raw materials that form the tools of destruction, the virtual idyll.

* A coproduction of the Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain de Genève (FCAC) and Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève for the Mire program and BIM’24, with the support of the Fonds d’art contemporain de la ville de Genève (FMAC) and the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.