Poetics of Encryption

Kunsthal Charlottenborg presents this year’s major group exhibition in close collaboration with KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. Poetics of Encryption explores the dark side of tech, bringing together 38 international artists. Installed in Kunsthal Charlottenborg’s grand south wing, the exhibition spans analogue and digital media featuring historic and newly commissioned works.

Though we rely on digital tools for many things, we rarely understand how they work. Moreover, due to the proprietary nature of much corporate tech, even the most curious among us cannot gain deeper insight. Today, we are forced to come to terms with our relative lack of power in the face of inscrutable systems. What symptoms of this personal and political drama register in the cultural field? What moods, symbols, or narrative frames capture the aesthetics and politics of exclusion, occlusion, secrecy, and speculation concerning technology’s inside?

The exhibition is curated by Nadim Samman, the author of the recent book titled Poetics of Encryption. Art and the Technocene. It surveys an imaginative landscape marked by ‘Black Sites’, ‘Black Boxes’, and ‘Black Holes’ — terms that indicate how technical systems capture users, how they work in stealth, and how they distort cultural space-time. These three themes form the basis for the exhibition Poetics of Encryption that play out across more than 1000 m2 in Kunsthal Charlottenborg’s south wing.

Participating artists: Nora Al-Badri, Morehshin Allahyari, Emmanuel Van der Auwera, Gillian Brett, Émilie Brout & Maxime Marion, Nanna Debois Buhl, Julian Charrière, Joshua Citarella, Clusterduck, Juan Covelli, Kate Crawford, Sterling Crispin, Simon Denny, enorê, Mathias Gramoso, Jürgen Mayer H., Roger Hiorns, Tilman Hornig, Vladan Joler, Daniel Keller, Andrea Khôra, Jonna Kina, Kristian Kragelund, Juliana Cerqueira Leite, Eva & Franco Mattes, Carsten Nicolai, Simone C Niquille, Trevor Paglen, Matthias Planitzer, Jon Rafman, Rachel Rossin, Sebastian Schmieg, Charles Stankievech, Most Dismal Swamp, Troika, Nico Vascellari

Poetics of Encryption is initiated by KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, with support by Volkswagen Group. The exhibition at Kunsthal Charlottenborg is supported by the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen’s Foundation, the Augustinus Foundation, the Beckett Foundation, the Danish Art Foundation, the New Carlsberg Foundation, the Obel Family Foundation, the William Demant Foundation.

Public program: 

27 Sep: Season opening
16.00-17.00 Talk: Poetics of Encryption
17.00-21.00 Opening of Poetics of Encryption and Francis Upritchard, free admission
21.00-00.00 Afterparty: Poetics of Encryption x Culture Box
21.00-22.00 Eliott Litrowski
22.00-23.00 Rhyw & Moritz Stumm LIVE A/V (Fever AM / Flipping The Coin)
23.00-00.00 Alva Noto (DJ set)

2 Oct: Tour
17.30-18.30 Curator tour in Poetics of Encryption by Nadim Samman

11 Oct: Culture Night
18.00-00.00 Workshops, guided tours and treasure hunt for families

19 Oct: Autumn break
12.00-13.00 Family tour
13.00-14.00 Workshop

5 Nov: Tour
10.00-13.00 Art with your baby incl. guided tour in Poetics of Encryption

13 Nov: Charlottenborg’s Kaffeklub
08.30-10.00 Art & Artificial Intelligence

27 Nov: Talk
17.00-18.30 Nora Al-Badri: Decolonizing Data: AI and Technoheritage

12 Jan: Finissage
11.00-17.00 Final day of the exhibition Poetics of Encryption
15.00-16.00 Curator tour in Poetics of Encryption by Nadim Samman