Studio Hanniball is pleased to invite you to our upcoming show 'Do Cyborgs Dream Of Electric Sheep'

The History of our culture could be written following the tension between knowledge and belief, science and faith, the amount of trust we place on tradition and the amount we place on innovation. We can not know how other species with big brains, clearly sentient beings such as other primates or large mammals like whales, perceive and to some extent explain the many phenomena of the world to themselves. Though more and more scientists begin to ascribe characteristics to chimpanzees and whales that we believed were exclusive to us, such as culture and language, the West still places human beings on the top of the pyramid. We are after all the species that has ventured into space and dominated every single continent on the planet. At the same time, our culture seems obsessed with a nostalgia for the natural, the primitive, the essential, the perceived innocence of other animals. As Artificial Intelligence becomes a bigger part of our lives, that last bastion of exclusivity in Humanity seems threatened: Art. Will robots write the poems and paint the pictures of the future?

Our anxiety seems filled by warnings from words and images, sci-fi novels and movies that have warned us of the devastating possibilities of a world devoid of human fallibility. At the same time, some of the most stable words used for human beings have been put into question in the past decades: what is a man? What is a woman? Are these entirely social constructs or is there an underlying reality to these concepts? Are we possibly condemned to be hybrids of what we are and what we say we are, never knowing the difference? And is there a difference? These are legitimate questions that elicit the most passionate responses. The species that sent probes to the out reaches of the Solar System still largely believes in a Creator, a Deity that originated everything, but hides from us for some mysterious reason. Mystery is important here. Because we are beings that are capable of awe at the phenomena of nature. In that sense, we can not truly know how different we are from other species with large brains. Does the chimpanzee feel wonder at lightning? Does a whale feel grief? And have we human beings lost contact with something very essential that brings us very close to both chimpanzees and whales? This essential thing, is that not what we keep looking for in Art, generation after generation? The four artists in this exhibition use from old to new techniques to ask questions that have occupied us for a long time, in our relationship with gods and goddesses, monkeys and robots. What is creation? Are we creators or creatures? Are we Frankenstein or the monster sewn up with different body parts? It is interesting that the name of the scientist became synonymous with the monster. Does that not tell us that we are unsure which one is which?

Text von Ricardo Domeneck

Raumkonzept von Meret Schmiese

Johannes Bosisio

Alex Clayton

Nassim L'Ghoul

Sally von Rosen

Official Opening:

26th of April