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Procedural Incarnation II

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Exhibition view: »Digital III – Generativ«, Fotogalerie Wien, 2023. Foto: Michael Michlmayr
Detail view: »Digital III – Generativ«, Fotogalerie Wien, 2023.
Detail view: »Digital III – Generativ«, Fotogalerie Wien, 2023.
Exhibition view: »Gottfried-Brockmann-Preis«, Stadtgalerie Kiel, 2023.
Exhibition view: »Gottfried-Brockmann-Preis«, Stadtgalerie Kiel, 2023.
Exhibition view: »Gottfried-Brockmann-Preis«, Stadtgalerie Kiel, 2023.
Detail view: »Gottfried-Brockmann-Preis«, Stadtgalerie Kiel, 2023.

2023 Installation Fotogalerie Wien: Series of 4 images (97 x 78 cm, unframed, mounted on aluminum composite panel). Pigment prints on Hahnemühle Fine Art Baryta, wall text. Installation Stadtgalerie Kiel: Series of 20 images (40 x 50, unframed, unframed, mounted on aluminum composite pane). Pigment prints on Epson Traditional, 5 digital graphics (40 x 50, black and white UV print on acrylic glass), wall text.

My approach is rooted in a postmodern understanding of the body, viewing it as a malleable entity and challenging its conventional status as a natural object. »Procedural Incarnation« utilizes advanced image production techniques, exploring the intersection of technology, the human body, and body image. Using digital body photographs as a starting point, I utilize machine learning to produce new body images. The imperfect image, which reflects a distorted perception of the world by a transclassical machine, serves as the basis for creating three-dimensional body models. This creates a tense relationship between different imaging processes, but also an interplay between the template and the artistic interpretation of it.

02

Procedural Incarnation I

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Exhibition view: »an/ab/wesend«, Gallery Cubeplus, Kiel (2023).
Exhibition view: »an/ab/wesend«, Gallery Cubeplus, Kiel (2023). Right in the picture: Keita Morita, Gift Shop 2023.

2023 Two-channel video, full HD, 08:40 min / 12:00 min. Pigment print (50 x 40 cm), vinyl wallpaper (60 x 90 cm).

In the postmodern, the body and its image become malleable. Its position as a natural object is rightly examined and questioned in relation to cultural, scientific, political or economic factors. Therefore, contemporary body images must accordingly be understood as sociotechnically constructed images. New tools, such as artificial intelligence and three-dimensional simulations, are an addition to the media landscape and at the same time a challenge for the medium of photography. Real-time game applications such as "metahuman" already show simple ways to create human bodies and identities. These approaches are mostly based on statistical variations to describe and give meaning to the appearance of the human body. However, artificially created bodies are not a unique feature of today's computer games. They can be found in socio-technical networks, films, music videos or magazines. In the process, they are highlighted as bodies of art or are completely integrated into other conventional forms of representation. Precisely these phenomena and the new imaging techniques are taken up in the work. At the same time, these circumstances and developments are subverted by dispensing with normative-organic organisation and common representation of the human body.

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Body Options II

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2022 Two-channel video (40:00 min, 65"), Image series (40 x 30 cm), 3D print bust (PLA, 35 x 30 x 20 cm), acrylic glass plate (40 x 40 x 1 cm).

»Body Options II« (2022) is the latest installation by Mateusz Dworczyk, which was on display at Kiel's art association »Kunstraum B«. In his transmedial practice, the media artist explores the interplay between technology, the human body, and its pictorial representation. The focus lies particularly on photo-based digital imaging techniques such as machine learning and 3D technology. The work is built on the subset of results of an artificial neural network (trained on a self-created data set of ballet dancers) which contains outcomes that are usually defined as errors in the image-generating process. Those »errors« are then translated into three-dimensional space by using 3D-Software.
The images of these sculpted bodies appear in competition with normative body representations and the subjective body images of the visitors themselves. They infest the exhibition space, materialise, and affect the viewer. They show the power and impact of immaterial transclassical machines like artificial neural networks and remind us that technical instruments, apparatuses, and systems have always had anthropological relevance and a considerable influence on the idea of the human body, its function, form, and image.
»Body Options II« opens up a space of imagination that oscillates between present possibilities and future scenarios. However, neither angstlust-rhetoric (the pleasure of fright) nor fear of technology is the subject of the work. But rather the question of the omnipresent relationship between technology, the human body, and the ever-changing image of the body. Dworczyk aims to question the functional logic of technology which is transferred to the body. His work tries to visually oppose the inherent tendencies of standardisation, optimisation, and utilitarianism, as well as the organisation of the body into an organism through the artistic examination of a body without organs.

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Body Options I

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Exhibition view: »Gottfried Brockmann Preis«, Stadtgalerie Kiel (21/22). On the left work by Jakob Braune.
Exhibition view: »Gottfried Brockmann Preis«, Stadtgalerie Kiel (21/22). On the left work by Jakob Braune/Paula König.
Exhibition view: »Gottfried Brockmann Preis«, Stadtgalerie Kiel (21/22). On the right the work by Tian Wu.
Exhibition view: »Gottfried Brockmann Preis«, Stadtgalerie Kiel (21/22).
Exhibition view: NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (2021). Photo: Simon Vogel
Exhibition view: NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (2021). On the left: witness to the (digital) world, 2020. Photo: Simon Vogel

2021 Single-channel video projection (2 x 1,5 m, 05:35 min), dancers: SueKi Yee, Christopher Carduck, sound assistance: Christian Werner Sierra.

05

Room for two

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Exhibition view: »contact«, billboard exhibition (2020). Location: Kirchhofallee 47-49, Kiel
Exhibition view: »contact«, billboard exhibition (2020). Location: Kirchhofallee 47-49, Kiel

2019 — ongoing. A series of screenshot-compositions.

Focusing on phenomena of the presentation of self in everyday life and the question what part the real-time frame-medium »Internet« plays in this context, this work is dedicated to a special form of digital staging. This includes live webcams and especially sex webcams. The Focus lies on the arising elusive situation. The viewer is confronted with an overwhelming array of stagings and windows from all over the world. They allow a glance into supposedly private housing-situation. The screen recording has been used to capture a brief moment in which no person was in the picture. The fluid real-time image has become a photographic snapshot. The Internet has become a place of self- and external representation with elusive, ambiguous boundaries between private and public spaces.

06

Memeclassworldwide

MCW

»Artists Have The Answers?«, 2022. »What Can Artists Do Now?«, Gallery Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Vienne / AT. Foto: Bernhard Garnicnig
»Artists Have The Answers?«, 2022. »What Can Artists Do Now?«, Gallery Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Vienne / AT. Foto: Bernhard Garnicnig
»Artists Have The Answers?«, 2022. »What Can Artists Do Now?«, Gallery Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Vienne / AT. Foto: Bernhard Garnicnig
Einhundert Geburtstagskerzen auf der Buttercremetorte, 2021. Happening and exhibition on the occasion of Beuys‘ anniversary year, AStA Ausstellungsraum, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Foto: Marina Kiga
Einhundert Geburtstagskerzen auf der Buttercremetorte, 2021. Happening and exhibition on the occasion of Beuys‘ anniversary year, AStA Ausstellungsraum, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Foto: Marina Kiga
Einhundert Geburtstagskerzen auf der Buttercremetorte, 2021. Happening and exhibition on the occasion of Beuys‘ anniversary year, AStA Ausstellungsraum, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Foto: Marina Kiga
collection, 2020. »Einblick/Ausblick«, poster exhibition, Kunsthalle Kiel. Foto: Louise Preuß, Sören Herber.
collection, 2020. »Einblick/Ausblick«, poster exhibition, Kunsthalle Kiel. Foto: Louise Preuß, Sören Herber.
collection, 2020. »Einblick/Ausblick«, poster exhibition, Kunsthalle Kiel. Foto: Louise Preuß, Sören Herber.
I didn’t know it’s that easy, 2019. In the art association Prima Kunst, Stadtgalerie Kiel.
I didn’t know it’s that easy, 2019. In the art association Prima Kunst, Stadtgalerie Kiel.
I didn’t know it’s that easy, 2019. In the art association Prima Kunst, Stadtgalerie Kiel.

2018 — ongoing. Collaborative projec. Detailed information on projects: mcww.voyage (2024), mcww.service (2022), mcww.memes (2018 – 2022)

memeclassworldwide (mcww) is a series of collaborative projects by Ramona Kortyka, Jennifer Merlyn Scherler, Mateusz Dworczyk and Juan Blanco that took its initial form as an institution-critical meme account in 2018 and transformed into an autonomous class at a German art academy in 2019. Based on the internet as a reference space, the group investigates post-digital phenomena, considering the range of their aesthetic, social and political dimensions. The gathered insights are integrated into practices of teaching and exhibiting. To this date, the artist group has held numerous lectures and organised different seminars, workshops, and research residencies in the D-A-CH-region. Since 2022 the collective defines itself as a roaming working group that approaches institutions from outside.

07

Witness to the (digital) world

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Exhibition view: NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (2021). Photos: Simon Vogel
Exhibition view: NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (2021), Photos: Simon Vogel. On the left: Tiktok deleted it, 2021 by Hannes Fleckstein
Exhibition view: NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (2021), Photos: Simon Vogel. In the center: Tiktok deleted it, 2021 by Hannes Fleckstein
Exhibition view: NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (2021). Photos: Simon Vogel

2020. A series of screenshot-compositions (digital print on PVC banner 1,7 x 6,4 m and 1,7 x 3,2 m folded as objects).

Fleckstein/Dworczyk contrasts anonymity with prominence and self-presentation in social networks. By including one's own self-image (selfie), as well as using the aesthetics of social software interfaces, the romanticised image of the uniformed individual is to be negated.

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Room on display

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Exhibition view: NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (2021). Photos: Simon Vogel
Exhibition view: Futur 3 Festival, Kiel (2020)

2020 Installation NAK: two-channel video/sound loops (03:40, 04:14 min) on two screens (55"), mattresses innerspring, mirrored revolving stage, Pfizer pills, glass and mirror smartphones (5.8") and various personal objects. Installation Futur3: two-channel video/sound loops (03:40, 03:00 min) on two screens (55"), white carpet (140 x 140cm), glass and mirror smartphones (5,8"), MA1 jacket, cable drum as well as various personal objects.

»Fake people with fake cookies and fake social-media accounts, fake-moving their fake cursors, fake-clicking on fake websites.« (Read; 2018) — Through a dialogic approaches, our related subjects are united in this two channel video installation. The idiosyncratic narrative tries to describe everyday turnarounds that usually go unnoticed. The interplay with these boundaries (and their reversal) is adopted in the spatial arrangement. In addition to commonalities in content, formal aspects of digital cultural techniques are addressed through the manipulation of digital surfaces.

09

Abgefuckt liebt dich

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hope for the best prepare for the worst, 2021. Collaborative installation: revolving stage, plastic boxwood, UV lamp, tablet (5"), 3D printed objects. Exhibition view: Atelier Umraum, Alte Mu Kiel (2021)
Mateusz Dworczyk: Algorithmic Representation, 2021
Malin Dorn: Corpus Apparatus, 2020. Lightjet Prints on Alu-Dibond (50x70cm)
Ramona Kortyka: Schnecken Disco, 2021
Fleckstein/Dworczyk: witness to the (digital) world, 2021. Left: Malin Dorn
Left: Fleckstein: tiktok deleted it, 2021. On the wall: Dworczyk: curtains and covers, 2020
Left: Ramona Kortyka: Homeliness, 2021. Right: Malin Dorn: seductive girl, 2021
Malin Dorn: seductive girl, 2021

2021 Self-organised group show with Malin Dorn and Ramona Kortyka. Exhibition view: Atelier Umraum, Alte Mu Kiel (2021).

Digitality can no longer be regarded as a parallel structure or a mere extension of our world. The digitality that surrounds us is an integral, interwoven and influential part of all areas of life. For this reason, it is a mistake to believe that it is possible to escape the digital environment or to simply turn it off like a program. In this joint exhibition the multimedia artists address precisely these circumstances by focusing on code-based technologies, socio-technical networks and phenomena of a culture of the digital.

10

Homo Ex Machina

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Exhibition view: »66. Landesschau BBK SH«, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (2019)

2019 Installation: Two screens (55"), white curtain, black ventilator. Video/sound loops (04:00 and 05:50 min).

This work is committed to various questions of identity: How do we define and present ourselves, how do we communicate these identities in digital spheres? Fake lifestyle in social media is becoming the norm, the pressure of self-optimisation is turning into an overkill and the simulated perfection is transforming individuals into performative identities. Once everyone can display, shape and change their own faces, everyone becomes a star in their own reality show. Have those identities now reached a new peak or are there other goals they will reach with their digital performance? Starting from these questions, we think about our own digital narrative. The excess of perfect postings evokes a desire for trash, naivety and ugliness.

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Dianthus II

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Exhibition view: »1949.1985.1994« Flämische Straße (Offspace), Kiel (2019)
Exhibition view: »1949.1985.1994« Flämische Straße (Offspace), Kiel (2019)

2019 Installation: photogrammetric texture, 3D printed carnation, mirror base and found footage video collage (01:10 min).

Proceeding from Dianthus I (2018), this work expands the investigation on the sign towards a general question of the referentiality. The carnation is used as a sign in very different contexts and social classes for centuries. In „Dianthus II“ the flower is presented as a 3D object. It is stripped of its nature, digitised and medially doubled. By being placed on the mirror base, the relationship between the technical copy and its reflection is addressed. The found footage was subjected to a similar treatment: It was cropped and reassembled, so that the origin and the context of the image remain hidden. With this formal and medial interplay, the work tries to point towards a lack of reference systems since modernity.

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Dianthus I

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Exhibition view: Atelier Umraum, Alte Mu, Kiel (2018)
Exhibition view: Atelier Umraum, Alte Mu, Kiel (2018)
Exhibition view: Atelier Umraum, Alte Mu, Kiel (2018)

2018. Installation: fresh flowers, urine, cellophane bags, tape, dipping wax. Picture: Digital colour photography »Selfportrait With Carnation« and video loops (32").

Throughout history, the floral symbol of the carnation has undergone more than one about-turn: from the peasant symbol of honour and love, via a resistance symbol of the nobility during the French Revolution, to the sign of the labour movement. The work attempts to detach the sign from its connotations and to renew the flower's description. In the course of this the emphasis is put on the special relationship beetween the portrait oft the flower and the artist's self-portrait. The carnation becomes the catalyst for a dialogue between two artists with different nationalities from working class families.

Up Next:
30.08.2024, Educational program: »Tools for Change«, HEK Haus der Elektronischen Künste, Basel
12.09. – 23.10.24: »Weder Blume, noch Fleisch«, Galerie Bunker-D, Kiel.