Friends
In 2018, the artificial intelligence giant Nvidia presented a project that, at the time, seemed like science fiction to everyone. Entitled This Person Does Not Exist, it is a system for randomly and infinitely generating faces of people who have never existed, designed from all the profiles stored on the internet, classified by gender, age and ethnicity. In Friends, Marc Lee takes this research as a starting point to create an immersive experience that becomes an excessive, dystopian version of our interactions on social media. It is an avalanche of friendships with ever-new faces, each with a first and last name, created by AI and transformed into a human-like mass surrounding the user.
Friends ironically discusses the unreliability of online content and the proliferation of fake profiles on social media. Despite their opaque operation and systematic non-compliance with privacy regulations, these social networks have become privileged environments for connecting, communicating and informing ourselves about the world.
Born in Knutil in 1969, Marc Lee is a Swiss multimedia artist who works in the fields of interactive installation, the Internet, performance, and video art. He is lecturing, teaching and holding workshops about art and software art in many schools including the CAA Hangzhou, Strelka Moscow, SIVA Shanghai, MMCA Seoul and ZHdK Zurich. He focuses on real-time processed, computer programmed audiovisual installations, AR, VR and mobile apps. His work has been shown in major museums and new media art exhibitions including: ZKM Karlsruhe, New Museum New York, MMCA Seoul, ISEA Gwangju and Paris, Transmediale Berlin, Ars Electronica Linz and has received major awards including: the Expanded Media Award for Network Culture Stuttgart (2024), the Pax Art Award Basel (2021), the Netart Award Hamburg (2008) and the Transmediale Award (2002). Work by the artist is represented in permanent collections, including the Swiss Confederation Federal Art Collection, Bern; HeK, Basel; Fotomuseum, Winthertur and the ZKM, Karlsruhe.
Indoor exhibition and online
Marc Lee
FRIENDS
Nº 9 on the map
Venue: Amezti Hall
Address: Amezti 6, Algorta
Hours: Tuesday to Friday 17:30–20:30
Saturday 11:00–14:30 / 17:30–20:30
Sunday 11:00–14:30
In collaboration with:
