16 May to 19 November 2023
At first glance, “The Nemesis Machine” seems like a fascinating, flickering, one-of-a-kind art piece filled with electronics, monitors, light and networking. If you linger and immerse yourself in the installation from the London artist Stanza, the artwork will reveal its deeper character.
It incorporates aspects of data ownership, surveillance and the urban landscape. The installation generates tension between utopia and dystopia that attempts to set us free but also makes us accomplices of the control system.
The artwork offers an aerial view of a cybernetic cityscape featuring skyscrapers built of silicon and circuit boards.
The artist Stanza describes his work like this: “The real world is made virtual and the virtual is made real again and exposed in the process.” The entire piece is a living and breathing artwork. The project focuses on the micro-incidents of change, the vibrations and sounds of the environment using wireless sensor-based technologies.”
“The Nemesis Machine” has never before been so comprehensive as it can be seen now in the HNF. The central installation alone covers 101 square metres. Its overall surface, including the lateral elements and projections, total 800 square metres.
The artwork has cameras and local sensors in the museum environment that capture light, temperature and noise, but real-time data on weather, the environment and traffic is its basis. In the HNF, Stanza uses internet data from Germany, working with 4,000 points of traffic data alone. All the data together produces the colourful, flickering scenery – the reason why Stanza sees “The Nemesis Machine as a visualisation project.
The living landscapes and the living systems projections on the walls expand the installation. They draw partly from global data and partly from German and/or regional data, providing a complete three-dimensional impression.
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Note: Photo shoots of "The Nemesis Machine" are welcome, but only with your own smartphone. Redistribution of the photos on social media is permitted if the artist is mentioned with his profile @stanza_dna.
Stanza
Stanza (born in 1962) is an internationally recognised British artist. He studied art at Goldsmiths College, University of London, in the early 1980s and later at the University of Greenwich as well as Central Saint Martins and University of Westminster London.
His media include netart, paintings, video art, installations and software systems, and he produces public artworks. He focuses on the primary themes of urban landscapes, surveillance culture, privacy and the alienation intrinsic to big cities. His artworks have been displayed in more than 100 exhibitions worldwide, including the Venice Biennale; Victoria and Albert Museum; Tate Britain; London Transport Museum; Mundo Urbano, Madrid; Bruges Museum; State Museum Novosibirsk; Biennale of Sydney; Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; and São Paulo Biennale.
Stanza has been the recipient of numerous international awards.
Admission
Adults: 5 euros
Discount: 3 euros
Family ticket: 10 euros
Groups of 10 and more: 3 euros
Groups of 10 and more discount: 2 euros
Combination ticket with permanent exhibition:
Adults: 10 euros
Discount: 6 euros
Family ticket: 20 euros
Groups of 10 and more: 6 euros
Groups of 10 and more discount: 4 euros
Return ticket:
Combination tickets (except for group tickets) authorise the holder to visit the permanent exhibition a second time within 12 months of the original visit.
Groups from general-education and vocational schools, universities, universities of applied sciences, kindergartens and day-care centres are admitted free of charge by prior arrangement. Please phone +49 (0)5251-306-660 or service(at)hnf.de.
Multimedia guide
Visitors can borrow a free multimedia guide at the HNF ticket counter. In the guide, Stanza introduces “The Nemesis Machine” in text and video and tells about the artistic idea and implementing it. This guide can also be accessed via your own smartphone or directly on the internet.