Emmanuel Van der Auwera
VideoSculpture XXX (The Gospel), 2024
Video installation with sound, 17 min 53 sec.
8 flat screens, glass, MDF, metal
8 flat screens, glass, MDF, metal
341 x 279 x 242 cm
134 1/4 x 109 7/8 x 95 1/4 in
134 1/4 x 109 7/8 x 95 1/4 in
Edition of 2 plus 1 artist's proof
A coproduction of 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 Fonds d’art contemporain de la ville de Genève (FMAC) and the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. Courtesy of the artist & Harlan Levey Projects
'The sculptural video installation VideoSculpture XXX (The Gospel) (2024) consists of a vertical monitor of white light and a horizontal, reflective floor surface: Only in the depths of the monolithic,...
"The sculptural video installation VideoSculpture XXX (The Gospel) (2024) consists of a vertical monitor of white light and a horizontal, reflective floor surface: Only in the depths of the monolithic, black glass does the video piece become visible.
Thematically, the work is made up of three levels which share the common concern of exploring the foundations and consequences of artificial intelligence (AI): firstly, accounts from a Chinese worker at a secret Bayan-Obo mine for ‘rare soils’; secondly, fragments of conversations with Caryn, the first AI girlfriend, which was launched in spring 2023; and thirdly, news reports about Gospel, an AI-based military target recognition software. The different levels of the work converge in the question of the material, digital, and imaginary conditions of the production of reality. VideoSculpture XXX (The Gospel) illuminates the connection between the extraction of so-called ‘rare soils’, which form the basis of the digital revolution and AI, and tells of the global entanglements of neo-extractivism in order to link it to a global, digital economy that extends to the latest developments of deep learning algorithms in warfare.
All of the video and sound material in the artwork, with the exception of the song at the very end, is generated with the help of AI. Van der Auwera uses AI as a conceptual starting point and narrative tool. Using posts found on the Chinese social media platform Douyin, the artist takes reports of a Chinese mine worker and translates them into audio-visual form using AI. The resulting video material allows personal impressions into life underground, which shift between speculation and documentation. Image-generating AI creates a new reality in images that can no longer be distinguished from traditional recordings; as a result, AI both unsettles the reality of images while at the same time allowing for new, speculative insights into previously hidden worlds."
Text by Dr. Martin Karcher for the exhibition In and Out of Place. Land after Information 1992–2024, Kunstverein in Hamburg, 2024.
* 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.
Thematically, the work is made up of three levels which share the common concern of exploring the foundations and consequences of artificial intelligence (AI): firstly, accounts from a Chinese worker at a secret Bayan-Obo mine for ‘rare soils’; secondly, fragments of conversations with Caryn, the first AI girlfriend, which was launched in spring 2023; and thirdly, news reports about Gospel, an AI-based military target recognition software. The different levels of the work converge in the question of the material, digital, and imaginary conditions of the production of reality. VideoSculpture XXX (The Gospel) illuminates the connection between the extraction of so-called ‘rare soils’, which form the basis of the digital revolution and AI, and tells of the global entanglements of neo-extractivism in order to link it to a global, digital economy that extends to the latest developments of deep learning algorithms in warfare.
All of the video and sound material in the artwork, with the exception of the song at the very end, is generated with the help of AI. Van der Auwera uses AI as a conceptual starting point and narrative tool. Using posts found on the Chinese social media platform Douyin, the artist takes reports of a Chinese mine worker and translates them into audio-visual form using AI. The resulting video material allows personal impressions into life underground, which shift between speculation and documentation. Image-generating AI creates a new reality in images that can no longer be distinguished from traditional recordings; as a result, AI both unsettles the reality of images while at the same time allowing for new, speculative insights into previously hidden worlds."
Text by Dr. Martin Karcher for the exhibition In and Out of Place. Land after Information 1992–2024, Kunstverein in Hamburg, 2024.
* 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.