DUSSELDORF.- WORLDBUILDING is the first exhibition at the Julia Stoschek Foundation to last for eighteen months. Central to the concept of the exhibition, which has been on view since June 2022, is to constantly augment it with new works. The focus of the ongoing investigation is the relationship between gaming and time-based media art. In the words of curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, “WORLDBUILDING is an evolutive notion of what an exhibition can be. Like many games themselves, the exhibition started as one version of itself, and through feedback, our research—which includes studio visits with artists on all continents—it grows and changes into an altered and expanded version.”

Following Koo Jeong A’s CHAMNAWANA (2018), the first piece to be integrated into the exhibition, works by Ericka Beckman, Porpentine Charity Heartscape, and Pierre Huyghe was added on 5 March 2023. The two-channel film installation Hiatus (1999/2015) by Ericka Beckman is an experimental narrative about Madi, a young woman who meets a series of game identities that trick and confuse her as she plays the interactive computer game Hiatus. In the video game almanac of girlswampwar territory (2018) by Porpentine Charity Heartscape, the artist attempts to recreate the feeling of video games from their early childhood by creating a girl who wanders through a blurry, pixelated dream world with child soldiers and edible ponies. The animated film Two Minutes Out Of Time (2000) by Pierre Huyghe is based on the multi-artist project No Ghost Just A Shell (1999–2002). In 1999 Huyghe and Philippe Parreno purchased the rights to a virtual avatar that was originally developed for computer games. They named it AnnLee and, in collaboration with other artists, they intended to complete her blank “being” with stories and ideas in collaboration with other artists, lending the avatar an identity and a life of her own. Huyghe’s animated film, which can now be seen in the exhibition, is one “chapter” in the story that is taking shape.

WORLDBUILDING will be further expanded with additional works in two stages in June and September 2023. A comprehensive exhibition catalog will reflect on the research project and the phenomenon of gaming from several different perspectives.

ARTISTS

• Ericka Beckman, b. 1951 in Hempstead, New York; lives and works in New York City and Massachusetts.

• Porpentine Charity Heartscape, b. nowhere; lives in Oakland, California; works online.

• Pierre Huyghe, b. 1962 in Paris; lives and works in New York City.

• Koo Jeong A, b. 1967 in Seoul; lives and works everywhere.