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19 September 2021

Ryoji Ikeda's artwork

Artist and composer Ryoji Ikeda considers the data-verse trilogy to be his ultimate project. The perfectly synchronised composition follows two decades of research and execution, 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).

The complete trilogy was exhibited at the centrepiece of RYOJI IKEDA, the largest exhibition of works by the artist to date in Europe, 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).

Ryoji Ikeda’s data-verse 3 premieres 23 – 26 September 2021 as a standalone artwork as part of Art Basel’s Unlimited sector, the unique platform for large-scale projects that transcend the limitations of a traditional art-fair stand, presented by Almine Rech and commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary.

I like playing around with the thresholds of perception.

RYOJI IKEDA

data-verse attempts to scan the entire scale of our nature, from the microscopic to the macroscopic … I’m just guiding you, your brain makes everything. You experience, you construct your story.

RYOJI IKEDA

A glimpse of Ryoji Ikeda's artwork.

Japanese leading electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda (b. 1966) engages with essential characteristics of sound and light by means of mathematical precision and aesthetics. By experimenting with frequencies and scales difficult for the human ear and mind alone to comprehend, Ikeda renders the imperceptible through numerical systems and computer aesthetics. His long-term projects have taken a multiplicity of forms, from immersive live performances and audio-visual installations, to books and CDs and have evolved over the years to encompass his data-driven research.

Ryoji Ikeda’s work has been performed and exhibited in numerous venues worldwide, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Musée d’art contemporain (MAC), Montreal; Sonár, Barcelona; The Barbican, London; The Vinyl Factory, London; The Singapore Art Science Museum; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam and Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, among others.

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. In 2018, Ikeda released codex | edition, the single source of his publishing and recordings. Ikeda is represented by Almine Rech (Paris, Brussels, London, New York and Shanghai) and TARO NASU (Tokyo).