Kunst & Denker Contemporary

With the use of augmented reality Banz & Bowinkel localize AI – controlled avatars on the middle area within the booth. The avatars have been developed by Banz & Bowinkel in cooperation with HTW Berlin and act out simulated performances, which can be seen as formalized social studies, in real time. The topic of the series is the synthesis and abstraction of human behavioral patterns in a computer-controlled society. Even today we (unknowingly) meet a variety of bots in our day-to-day life. They chart our activities and influence our decisions by imitating human behavior. The predictability of human behavior and it being systematically manipulated by such systems form one aspect of Banz & Bowinkel’s body of work. Another aspect is the fact that the created bots don’t have any access to the conditions of their behavior within the simulations. They cannot change the rules of their reality. The works visualize a world in which autonomy is only given to the creators of such social constructs, which makes the question of the distribution of power in such systems a key topic. Alongside the „Bots“, Kunst & Denker Contemporary presents a selection of the „Primitives“ – images that refer to the mathematical basic forms in digital computer graphics and contrast the cyberspace with our physical world and the Substances which belongs to the typical Bodypainting series of the artists.

Giulia Bowinkel, 1983 born in Düsseldorf 
2002-2008 Study at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf Friedemann Banz, 1980 born in Mainz
 2001-2007  Study at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf Residencies/Awards 2020 VR ART PRIZE Working Grant by DKB & CAA, Berlin
 2018 AURORA-School for Artist, Europäischer Fonds für regionale Kultur, Berlin 
2017 Digital Sculpture Award, Institute of digital art, HfK+G Ulm
2015 Project funding, Kunststiftung NRW, Germany
2011 Bronner Residency of Kunststiftung NRW/Goethe Institut, Tel Aviv, Israel Selected Exhibitions Groupshows | Soloshows * 2021
 Resonant Realities, HAL, Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin
THE ARTIST IS ONLINE – DIGITAL PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURES IN A VIRTUAL WORLD, KÖNIG | ST. AGNES DECENTRALAND
Abstract Art in The Age of New Media, MoCDA, Museum of Contemporary Digital Art 2020 New Waves, Kunst & Denker Contemporary, Düsseldorf
 Highlights der Sammlung 21. Jahrhundert, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld
 Bukarest Artworlds at the Wrong Biennale, Rezidenta BRD Scena 9, Bukarest
 Pixelfest Digital Utopia, Yeltsin Center Yekaterinburg
AV Experimental – Unpainted, ANALOG ROOM Dubai 2019
 Glowing Globe, Kortil Gallery, Rijeka
V für Verantwortung, Kunstverein Wolfsburg 
Anders wohnen – Dystopie, Haus Esters, Museum Krefeld
 Gestalten – ein Jahrhundert abstrakte Kunst im Westen, Kunsthaus NRW
 Transfer Download, Spring/Break Art Show LA, Los Angeles
IN MEDIAS RES, Kunstverein Arnsberg 2018
 ENVISIONING THE FUTURE, Halcyon Arts Lab, Washington DC
Artificial Paradise?, KM – Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz 
DIE ZUKUNFT DER ZEICHNUNG: ALGORITHMUS, Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach 
Disorder of Appearance, Kunst & Denker Contemporary, Düsseldorf *
 Digital Sculpture, Museum Ulm 2017 Digital Bodies, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan *

Kunst & Denker Contemporary is a gallery for contemporary art, based in Duesseldorf and focused on emerging and established artists and questions of the 21. century. She realizes art projects and exhibitions, builds up art collections, promotes cooperations between galleries, artists, institutions and collectors, sells art and publishes editions.