EVENT: FUMI OMORI (JUNE 2 - 15 2023, ONLINE)

HOME SWEET HOME

machinima/digital video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 2’ 35”, Japan, 2023

Created by Fumi Omori

Home Sweet Home explores personal memories and their translation into physical architecture through Animal Crossing: New Horizons. With a history of frequent relocations, the artist captured their rooms in photographs, preserving emotional connections to past spaces. Animal Crossing, a beloved game providing an idyllic refuge during the Covid-19 pandemic, allowed the artist to craft personalized rooms reflecting their personality. This project questions the impact of translating real-life spaces into the virtual realm. Employing photogrammetry, the artist reconstructs their past homes in the game, blurring boundaries with imaginative architecture. The interplay between virtual and physical layers offers a fresh perspective, showcasing a unique visual hacking method. Automating realities on the virtual plane reveals the intricate relationship between our fragile understanding of reality and memories. Digital reverie becomes an avenue for escapism, confronting the present, future, nostalgia, and denial.

Fumi Omori navigates the crossroads of the cultural diaspora with her transcendent visual language. Currently nearing the culmination of her master’s degree in photography at the esteemed École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL) in Switzerland, Omori’s diverse experiences serve as a potent source of inspiration. Born and raised in Japan, the artist spent over a decade living in prominent American coastal cities (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco) before gravitating towards the medium of photography. Her previous stints as a perceptive graphic designer and discerning art director have indubitably permeated her artistic vision.

EVENT: MORITZ JEKAT (MAY 5 - 18 2023, ONLINE)

Moritz Jekat

The Blue Seals. Extinct and Happy

machinima/digital video, color, sound, 5’ 25”, Germany, 2023

May 5 - 19 2023

Introduced by Matteo Bittanti

 

In The Blue Seals. Extinct and Happy the artist tackles the multifaceted theme of memory and its impact on our sense of place and identity. Exploring the notion of “home” as a deeply personal and evolving construct, the artist delves into their relationship with the city of Berlin, a metropolis which has undergone significant transformation over the past decade. Through the medium of an immersive bus simulation game set in 2021 Berlin, the artist takes us on a virtual journey through the city’s ever-changing landscape, one that mirrors the shifts and fluxes of their own being. The work weaves together a complex interplay of past and present, real and imagined, personal and collective, as the artist reflects on their fading memories of a love that once bloomed amid the streets of Berlin. The Blue Seals is an evocative exploration of the ways in which we are shaped by the spaces we inhabit and the memories we carry within us.

Moritz Jekat is a visual artist hailing from the vibrant intersection of Berlin and Lausanne, whose practice spans the mediums of computer-generated imagery, sculpture, and installation. With a distinguished BA in Visual Communication from Potsdam under their belt, Jekat has since gone on to further refine his craft as a participant in the esteemed Master program of Photography at ECAL in Renens, Switzerland. At the core of Jekat’s practice lies an incisive exploration of contemporary developments within western and specifically German society, with a particular emphasis on the role of identity and digital culture. Investigating the themes of co-existence, cohabitation, and the multiplicity of ideas that converge in shared spaces, Jekat’s work often draws on his own immediate surroundings before expanding outward to explore broader universal truths. Jekat explores the intersections between human experience and technological advancement, with computer-generated imagery and the use of AI serving as powerful tools in his artistic arsenal. Their work stands out as a thoughtful, insightful exploration of the rapidly evolving landscape of modern life, reflecting a deep engagement with the pressing questions and issues of our time.