Spells and Promises
Jo Caimo, Anton Cla, Thijs Jaeger, Julie De Kezel, Mathias Mu, Marnix Van Soom, Davide Zulli
The exhibition Spells and Promises brings together seven artists whose work uses new technologies as artistic media. Through themes of fantasy, science, spirituality, ecology, and the fluid boundaries between physical and digital realms, their works critically examine the gaps in our understanding of promised technological futures. In these spaces of uncertainty—where rational optimism meets an almost mystical allure—both utopian and dystopian possibilities begin to take shape.
Upon entering the exhibition, visitors encounter Jo Caimo’s Human Organ Concerto (2016), an interactive audio installation that transforms individual breath patterns into a collective sound composition. Exploring the intersection of the artificial and the natural, Davide Zulli presents two installations: Landscape Reinforcement #1 (2024), in which computer cooling systems encase organic elements in a transient layer of ice, preserving and isolating them in a mechanised stillness, and Landscape Reinforcement #2 (2024), a holographic projection that slowly erodes the leaves of a real fern, pointing to the uneasy relationship between technological imitation and the natural world. Julie De Kezel’s sculptural works are dispersed throughout the exhibition. These miniatures, made of hand-painted 3D-printed components and real mushrooms, rest on delicate salt pedestals, referencing cycles of preservation and decay. Their aesthetic, inspired by medieval Flemish miniatures, merges historical fantasy with contemporary digital craftsmanship. At the centre of the space, Thijs Jaeger’s Birth-Elements-One-World (2024) features a set of self-playing bronze bells, combining hand-moulded and 3D-printed techniques. Evoking Hindu and Buddhist iconography, the installation reflects on Jaeger’s Dutch-Indonesian heritage and the relationship between craft, technology, and spiritual practice. Technology as an active agent appears in Neo Seer (2024) by Mathias Mu & Marnix Van Soom, a biomorphic AI sculpture that observes its surroundings and generates responses, challenging the role of art as a passive object. Moving into the basement, Anton Cla’s Cyclepaths (2023) unfolds as an experimental animated film depicting escalating civil unrest. Blurring distinctions between humans, animals, and vehicles, the work distorts linear narrative structures, creating a surreal, unsettling portrayal of violence and protest.
Photography: Lina Van Huile
Exhibition handout