On May 9, 2023, the exhibition “Robot’s Path is a Shift” by artist Kiwa will be opened at Artrovert Gallery. The exhibition consists of one hundred digitally created images that captivate the viewer. The exhibition continues Kiwa’s artistic journey, which does not get stuck in fixed genres and techniques. This is something he has not done before.
Kiwa comments on his works as follows: “The idea behind the series is a state of immaturity and creative imagination. It is a world that is not stagnant, where metamorphosis and fairy tales are possible. Transformation is both a psychedelic experience and a Taoist constant change or flow. It explores states of experiencing a different reality.”
The exhibition’s thematic connection to the book of the same name published in 2004 is the concept of “shift”:
- In order for a structure to become aware of itself, for a machine or a perceiving subject to reach its metalevel, illogical and non-presumptive movement is needed.
- In order to change something, to get out of self-as-machine, one needs to change one’s thinking, algorithm, and given work mode.
- In order for a revolution to come, a shift in consciousness is required.
- In order to bite through the language in which internal communication takes place, a metalevel is needed.
- In order to become aware, deconstruction and the reversal of value hierarchies are necessary.
- In order to see the politicization of signifiers, deconstruction is needed.
The exhibition promises and delivers all of this.
“While a large number of artists are currently engaged in posthumanism – the intersection of humans and technology, Kiwa explores posthumanoidism – what happens to aliens in the future. The collection of artworks is emotionally impactful and creates an automatic shift in the viewer’s facial expressions and, I believe, in their thoughts as well,” commented Siim Raie, the founder of Artrovert Gallery, on the exhibition.
Kiwa (born 1975) is an Estonian artist, composer, curator, and writer, and the founder of the ;paranoia publishing house. He studied sculpture at the Tartu Art School and the Estonian Academy of Arts. The Center for Contemporary Arts Estonia describes Kiwa as a reluctant machine that shifts motifs and quotes. Combining anarchic and pop principles, the artist’s expressive means range from sculpture to painting, performance to video, and sound to text.
Since 2014, Kiwa has been leading the ;paranoia publishing house, which publishes books that no other publishing house wishes to publish for political, economic, aesthetic, or other reasons.
Kiwa has curated numerous exhibitions since 1999. He has given lectures at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2006-2018), led the sound art platform “metabor” (2001-2004), and the ethnographic documentary project “Soviet Hippies.” His works are included in the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia, the Tartu Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Estonia, and private collections in Estonia, Europe, and the United States. He was a recipient of the artist salary from 2017 to 2019.
The exhibition will remain open until June 22, 2023.
For more information, please contact Siim Raie, Artrovert Gallery, Galerist.
Artrovert Gallery, Turu plats 3, Nõmme, Tallinn.
galerii@artrovert.ee, +372 5076807.