The Futurist Vision of Pierre Huyghe Circles Back to Old Tropes

"There is considerable institutional weight underpinning an artist like Pierre Huyghe's first major exhibition in Berlin. Three years in the making, Liminals at Halle am Berghain was promoted as the most ambitious project within the LAS Art Foundation's "Sensing Quantum" program to date. In keeping with the foundation's mission of championing artist practices at the intersection of art, science, and technology, the exhibition is conceived of at a considerable scale."

"For all his accolades, the cognitive dissonance of Huyghe's newest work is untenable. In a world entirely of the artist's making-using technology capable of conjuring quite literally anything-Huyghe opts for a naked, white woman of reproductive age, alone, vulnerable, and faceless. The insistence in accompanying texts that this body is neutral merely emphasizes the demand that we look past what is plainly visible."

"Framed by LAS as engagement with uncertainty and quantum theory, is described as an act of "unworlding" that gestures toward a "radical outside" beyond human subjectivity. The venue of Halle am Berghain itself does a considerable amount of atmospheric labor: the former electrical station is cavernous, punishingly cold, with cathedral-like proportions. As your eyes adjust, Huyghe's soundscape is the first thing you notice: a droning wash of low frequencies that feels lifted from the film scores of horror or science fiction."

Pierre Huyghe staged Liminals at Halle am Berghain with institutional backing from the LAS Art Foundation's "Sensing Quantum" program. The project uses AI-driven image systems and biotechnological environments to unsettle human centrality. The central figure is a naked, faceless white woman of reproductive age, presented alone and vulnerable while labeled neutral by accompanying texts. The venue's cavernous, cold former electrical station amplifies atmosphere through sound: a droning low-frequency wash evoking horror and science fiction scores. Framed as engagement with uncertainty and "unworlding", the work creates pronounced cognitive dissonance that complicates its theoretical claims.

Read at Artnet News