Artists: METAHAVEN
Exhibition title: Autopoiesis
Venue: Tick Tack, Antwerp, Belgium
Date: September 15 – October 28, 2023
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Tick Tack, Antwerp
TICK TACK is excited to announce AUTOPOIESIS, the inaugural Belgian solo exhibition of the renowned Amsterdam-based artist collective Metahaven, presenting a series of newly commissioned textile works alongside two lms. The show opens on September 15 and is on view until October 28 at Mechelsesteenweg 247 in Antwerp.
Founded in the late 2000s by Vinca Kruk and Daniel van der Velden, Metahaven are known for their interweaving of information technologies, geopolitics, and philosophy, as well as poetry, ction, and storytelling. Through their pioneering, yet subtle, future-forward practice, they explore the uncharted and undeclared regimes of visual culture, being one of this domain’s most compelling voices. Metahaven has established a remarkable presence with solo exhibitions at esteemed institutions including ICA, London; MoMA PS1, New York and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and group shows including the Gwangju Biennial and Sharjah Biennial, among others.
Autopoiesis is a concept introduced in 1972 by the Chilean evolutionary biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela and describes the notion of “self-creation”. The exhibition encompasses lm and textile works, highlighting a constant interconnectedness between cognition and feeling. By combining digital aesthetics with weaving and embroidery, narrative and machine cra , the textile pieces challenge boundaries between the virtual and the tangible, between modes of experience, whilst the lm works explore the a ective intersections between cinema and texture.
The lm works Chaos Theory (2021) and Information Skies (2016) are shown on large TVs on the rst and ground floors respectively. Chaos Theory is a meditation on children, ground truth, and daydreaming, whereas Information Skies, a 2017 nominee for the European Film Awards, explores sincere, yet ctional emotional immersion within virtual reality.
TICK TACK’s nocturnal CINEMA program sets the stage for Metahaven’s lm Capture (2022), a speculative and poetic narrative alongside philosophical, scienti c and everyday-life questions. Daily, from sunset to sunrise, this lm will be projected into the public space (and live-streamed online).
Metahaven’s exhibition at TICK TACK will be part of the second edition of the nomadic exhibition project Publiek Park. Over the course of two weekends, this public program brings together culture, nature and heritage in three neighboring green public spaces across TICK TACK: Harmonie Park, Albert Park and the garden of the Provinciehuis. For a local corner store, Metahaven designed three di erent fruit wrappers, titled Wrapping worlds (2023).
As a physical extension of the project, TICK TACK publishes an exhibition catalog, including a theoretical reflection by philosopher and writer Bogna Konior, who currently is an assistant professor in Interactive Media Arts at NYU Shanghai. Konior’s writing provides a captivating additional framework to the show.
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Autopoiesis, 2023, exhibition view, Tick Tack, Antwerp
METAHAVEN, Versions and Waves, 2020, jacquard, wool, lurex, 245 x 150 cm
METAHAVEN, Large Language Model I, 2023, jacquard weaving with epoxy structure, 48 x 78 cm
METAHAVEN, Large Language Model II (ArXiv), 2023, jacquard weaving with epoxy structure, 48 x 78 cm
METAHAVEN, Large Language Model III, 2023, jacquard weaving with epoxy structure, 48 x 78 cm
METAHAVEN, Large Language Model IV, 2023, jacquard weaving with epoxy structure, 48 x 78 cm
METAHAVEN, Hopes all things, 2020, jacquard weaving, 10 x 39 cm
METAHAVEN, Untitled, 2020, jacquard weaving, 10 x 40 cm
METAHAVEN, Those who wait, 2020, jacquard weaving, 10 x 40 cm
METAHAVEN, Once uttered, untrue, 2020, jacquard weaving, 10 x 42 cm
METAHAVEN, Speak no word, 2020, jacquard weaving, 10 x 42 cm
METAHAVEN, Neomedievalists, 2020, jacquard weaving, 10 x 38 cm
METAHAVEN, Information Skies, 2016, video, color, sound Full HD
METAHAVEN, Seen [Arrows], 2020, jacquard weaving, 15 x 15 cm
METAHAVEN, Looking Forward [Arrows], 2020, jacquard weaving, 15 x 15 cm
METAHAVEN, Black Swan [Swans], 2023, embroidery on second-hand jacket
METAHAVEN, Playhead [Arrows I], 2020, embroidery on plastic bags, 32 x 48 cm
METAHAVEN, g’s heart [Blossoms], 2021, embroidery on second-hand jacket
METAHAVEN, Untitled [Arrows], embroidery on plastic bags, 42 x 27 cm
METAHAVEN, Untitled [Secrets], 2021, jacquard weaving, 20 x 19 cm
METAHAVEN, Forest and interface [Arrows I], 2021, embroidery on plastic bags, 43 x 42 cm
METAHAVEN, Prospekt Mira [Blossoms], 2021, embroidery on second-hand jacket
METAHAVEN, Blossoms [Blossoms], 2021, jacquard weaving, 20 x 19 cm
METAHAVEN, Along these singing lines [Arrows], 2020, jacquard weaving, 16 x 21 cm
METAHAVEN, Swans [Swans], 2023, embroidery on bus seat fabric, 20 x 28 cm
METAHAVEN, Causes [Swans], 2023, embroidery on second-hand jacket
METAHAVEN, Untitled [Blossoms], 2021, jacquard weaving, 14 x 26 cm
METAHAVEN, A Home [Blossoms], 2021, jacquard weaving, 175 x 204 mm
METAHAVEN, Underground over ground [Blossom], 2021, jacquard weaving, 26 x 44 cm
METAHAVEN, Dears [Blossoms], 2021, embroidery on plastic bags, 30 x 58 cm
METAHAVEN, Inhabitant [Arrows I], 2020, embroidery on plastic bags, 56 x 30 cm
METAHAVEN, Dears [Blossoms], 2021, embroidery on plastic bags, 35 x 59 cm
METAHAVEN, Anchorlands [Blossoms], 2021, embroidery on plastic bags, 45 x 57 cm
METAHAVEN, Chaos Theory, 2021, video, color, sound Full HD
METAHAVEN, Narrative Arc [Bus Seats], 2023, embroidery on bus seat fabric, 20 x 30 cm
METAHAVEN, Families on the bus [Bus seats], 2023, embroidery on bus seat fabric, 200 x 280 mm
METAHAVEN, Untitled [Bus seats], 2023, embroidery on bus seat fabric, 21 x 29 cm
METAHAVEN, Bats on a bus [Swans], 2023, embroidery on bus seat fabric, 200 x 300 mm
METAHAVEN, DAO (Governed by Tulips) [Bus seats], 2023, embroidery on bus seat fabric, 20 x 30 cm
METAHAVEN, Living Together In Stories, 2022, jacquard weaving, 245 x 150 cm
METAHAVEN, Living Together In Stories, 2022, jacquard weaving, 245 x 150 cm
METAHAVEN, Living Together In Stories, 2022, jacquard weavings, video, 245 x 150 cm