12 May 2023
Ryoji Ikeda’s data-verse trilogy—commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary in 2015 and showcased between 2019 and 2021—was on view at Copenhagen Contemporary as part of the exhibition Yet, It Moves! from 12 May to 31 December 2023. The inclusion marked the first time data-verse was presented in Scandinavia among works by an array of Danish and international artists.
Yet, It Moves! explored the encounter between art and science and exhibited artists who have been working with some of the world’s most prominent research institutions to develop their works. Artists including Ikeda have engaged in dialogue with researchers at the exhibition’s four scientific research partners: Arts at CERN; DARK at the Niels Bohr Institute; Interacting Minds Centre; and Modlab.
The result of the research was displayed in the works unfolding around the theme of motion as an omnipresent phenomenon and raising our awareness of the many complex patterns we are entangled in.
Ikeda’s data-verse trilogy was displayed in Copehnagen Contemporary’s largest hall. The work consists of three large-scale projections which create an explosion of images and sound moving from the microscopic to the macroscopic to immerse the viewer.
Ikeda considers the data-verse trilogy to be his most ambitious project to date. The perfectly synchronized commission follows an extensive period of research and development, during which the artist and his team rigorously processed, transcribed, and transformed open-source scientific data from institutions including CERN, NASA and the Human Genome Project.
The complete trilogy was commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary in 2015 and consists of three state-of-the-art high-definition DCI-4K video projections accompanied by a minimalist electronic soundtrack. data verse is Ikeda’s own hypnotic manifestation of the various dimensions of our world and immerses visitors in a cosmic journey from the microscopic to the human to the macroscopic.
data-verse 1 premiered at the 58th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale de Venezia (11 May – 24 November 2019). data-verse 1 and 2 were exhibited at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (7 December 2019 – 29 March 2020).
data-verse 2 was also exhibited in Tokyo, Midtown in 2019. data-verse 3 premiered as a stand-alone artwork as part of Basel’s Unlimited sector in September 2021. The complete trilogy was exhibited as the centrepiece of the artist’s solo exhibition at 180 Studios in London curated and produced by The Vinyl Factory and Fact Magazine in collaboration with Audemars Piguet Contemporary (20 May – 18 September 2021).
“data-verse" is absolutely precise. I have created so many installations in my life, but this project is the ultimate one.
Ryoji Ikeda
Artist
"data verse" was on view at Copenhagen Contemporary as part of the exhibition Yet, It Moves! from 12 May to 31 December 2023.
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Copenhagen Contemporary. Photo: David Stjernholm
Leading composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda explores the essential characteristics of sound and light by means of mathematical precision and aesthetics. By orchestrating sounds, visuals, materials, physics and mathematics, Ikeda goes beyond the conceptual to delve into extremes and infinites, testing the limits of human senses and digital technology. Ikeda’s experimental work engages with frequencies and scales difficult for the human ear and mind to comprehend, visualising sounds and rendering the imperceptible through numerical systems and computer aesthetics.
Ryoji Ikeda’s work has been performed and exhibited in numerous venues worldwide, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, the Elektra Festival, DHC Art Foundation and Musée d’Art Contemporain (MAC) in Montreal, the Festival Grec and the Sonár in Barcelona, the Barbican Centre and The Vinyl Factory in London, the Carriageworks in Sydney. Ikeda is the recipient of the 2001 Ars Electronica’s Golden Nica Prize for the Digital Music Category, the 2012 Giga-Hertz Award in the category of Sound Art at ZKM in Germany and the 2014 Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN.
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