RE–
ANIMATED
Jakob
Kudsk
Steensen

5. 7. – 20. 7. 19

OPENING: 5. 7. 2019 7 pm

PYLON-Lab is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibition RE-ANIMATED by interdisciplinary artist JAKOB KUDSK STEENSEN, opening on July 5th at 7pm.

Kudsk Steensen’s research and artistic practice oscillate between science, art and technology, presenting them in an inseparable symbiosis as a forward-thinking vision of our perception. For the development of his projects, Steensen undertakes intensive photographic excursions and transforms the collected material into unique digital worlds, using 3D technologies, photogrammetry, satellite data, and computer game software.

The exhibition at PYLON-Lab will present an immersive installation of Kudsk Steensen’s current project RE-ANIMATED, specifically designed for the gallery space. It will also mark Kudsk Steensen’s first solo exhibition in Germany to date.

RE-ANIMATED is a multi-media installation using video and virtual reality to investigate the connections between extinction, preservation and immortality. The complex project reflects our paradoxical history of technical and scientific development.

RE-ANIMATED is based on the last “Kauaʻi ʻōʻō” bird, which died in 1987, marking the extinction of its entire species. In 2009, the bird’s mating call was uploaded to YouTube after being recorded in 1975 and later digitized in an ornithological laboratory in New York. Since then, the Kauaʻi song ʻōʻō — the bird’s vain call for its companion who is no longer around —, has been played and heard online by humans more than half a million times. Kudsk Steensen’s art installation RE-ANIMATED is a response to this mating call: it is a reanimation of the extinct bird and its song, within a distorted digital reconstruction of the original habitat of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō on the Hawaiian island of Kauaʻi. As a kind of “digital gardener”, Kudsk Steensen has collected a large number of plants and bio-material and planted them in a digital environment, which he has programmed using algorithms to help colonizing the island. The virtual landscape also incorporates computer simulation models, used by climate researchers to predict future scenarios for life on Earth.

The virtual reality experience of RE-ANIMATED at PYLON-Lab will take the viewers on a journey into the imaginary ecosystem of an extinct species, which the artist has revived. At the same time, Kudsk Steensen offers an opportunity to vividly comprehend the drastic consequences of our actions as a society through the combination of art and modern technologies.

We are looking forward to welcoming you for the opening reception of RE-ANIMATED on July 5th at 7pm at PYLON-Lab.