THE MESSYVERSE EXHIBITION
2 September – 6 October
Monday – Friday – 10:00 -17:00
Saturday – 11:00 – 18:00
Sunday – closed
During THE MESSYVERSE on 2 and 3 September, Felix Meritis opened the doors to its new exhibition space with an immersive and multisensory exhibition exploring the chaotic creative potential of the new digital worlds.
Curated together with UNI_VERSE, THE MESSYVERSE EXHIBITION highlights visionary artists who use digital spaces to explore deeply human ideas such as grief, identity and the afterlife.
As virtual worlds are still in their infancy, we explore how they will shape our lives by showcasing new and deeply personal.
The artists
Serwah Attafuah is a multidisciplinary artist and musician based in Dharug land/West Sydney, Australia. She creates surreal cyber dreamscapes and heavenly wastelands populated by afro-futuristic abstractions of self with strong ancestral and contemporary themes. Serwah is one of the founding members of anti-colonial Death Metal band – DISPOSSESSED.
Serwah has collaborated with and been commissioned by clients including Mercedes Benz, Nike, GQ, Adobe, Gucci, Paris Hilton and Valentino. Recent notable achievements include her participation in Sotheby’s ‘Natively Digital’: A Curated NFT auction and ‘Apotheosis’: a live motion capture experience with Soft Centre at The Sydney Opera House.
Multimedia artist LuYang creates fantastical, often painful, and shocking images which represent an interdisciplinary blend of religion, philosophy, neuroscience, psychology and modern technology, as well as the allusions to real life forms and structures of natural and religious origin. The output of LuYang’s artistic practice spans game engines, 3D-animated films, video game installations, holograms, motion capture performances, virtual reality and software manipulation. The artist also collaborates with acclaimed scientists, psychologists, performers, dancers, experimental composers, music producers, robotics companies and pop stars.
LuYang graduated with a BA and MA from the New Media Art department of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. Their work has been featured in major museums and institutions internationally, Lu Yang participated in the 2022 Venice Biennale. Recent solo exhibitions are at: Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2023); Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK (2022-23); PalaisPopulaire, Berlin, Germany (2022 – 23); ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus, Denmark (2021–22); Spiral, Tokyo, Japan (2018); M WOODS, Beijing, China (2017–18); MOCA Cleveland, Cleveland, USA (2017); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, China (2011); and Fukuoka Asia Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (2011). Recent works in large-scale thematic exhibitions include The Milk of Dreams, 59th Venice Biennale 2022; Asia Society Triennial 2021, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris (2020); Shanghai Biennale 2018 and 2012; Athens Biennale 2018; Liverpool Biennial 2016; Montreal International Digital Art Biennial 2016; 56th Venice Biennale 2015 (Chinese Pavilion); and Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale 2014.LuYang was awarded the BMW Art Journey in 2019, following which they commenced the making of a new digital body of work titled DOKU. They are also the winner of the Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year 2022 award
Frederik Heyman’s (°1984) work is a balancing act incorporating multiple media. Heyman’s various background is clearly visible in the working process. The outcome, mainly created in a digitally altered environment, results in digital installations and video. In each image every element and action are carefully designed and defined in advance.This reflects in his commissioned works as well in his personal, more eclectic oeuvre.
In his work, Frederik Heyman uses photogrammetry to stage digital worlds out of relics of the past. Because one needs time to experience three dimensions, a 3D-scan is a bearer of duration. This duration gives Heyman’s work a narrative element which is often amplified by (mechanically induced) movement and timed text. For Heyman, the 3D-scan is not only a means to conserve the past, but also a means to recycle the present and an attempt shape the future.
Heyman explores the desire to overcome humanity. Technology and the human body are the protagonists.
His imagery, whether based on fact or fiction, ask us how we want to remember.
UNI_VERSE is a hybrid digital creative studio. Their roots are in 3D, animation, post,- and content production, but their vision stretches further than this. UNI_VERSE believes in open sourcing, collaborating, experimenting and exploring new ways of pushing the digital landscape towards new realms. They believe in connecting the digital with the physical world and using compelling and innovative technology while working with the most creative people in the industry.
Baast Studio is a creative technology & technical consultancy based in Amsterdam, founded by Technical Directors Abril Alvarez & Roel Kok. Driven by an unrelenting passion for creativity and technology, they constantly seek to excite by pushing the boundaries of what is possible with new technologies and different forms of media.
Ines Alpha is an internationally recognised digital artist from Paris. Alpha started experimenting with 3D while working in the beauty, fashion, and luxury industries as an art director, only to then develop her signature style: 3D makeup. Using 3D software and augmented reality to combine makeup with tech, Alpha unfolds a forward-thinking approach to create ethereal, futuristic narratives and a new future within the beauty space. She has collaborated with the creative industry’s biggest names such as Dior and Burberry, and pop scene’s top artists like Charli XCX, BIBI, or Yelle. Her works have been shown in “Aquaria” at the Maat Museum in Lisbon, Art Mûr in Montréal, and Coreana Museum in Seoul, and featured in VOGUE, i-D, Wired, and Dazed Beauty.
Malou Sandig is an Amsterdam-based digital designer specialised in the creation of digital humans. She graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2022, and since then has been working as a freelancer. She aims to create beautiful content that speaks meaningfully and embraces the digital world.
Coming from a graphic design and animation background, Romain Gauthier is a queer visual artist based in Paris. Gauthier directs and creates visual pieces which focus on people and identity through an exploration on digital fashion. Gauthier specialises in making garments and headpieces that humans can wear in the Metaverse, creating a hybrid digital persona and merging drama, flesh and pixels.
Vincent graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven with a degree in Media and Technology in 2021. His practice takes many different forms, but comes together under the term storytelling. Vincent uses media such as sculpture, animation, and performance to shape experiences and objects, often inspired by humankind’s ritualistic practices. Driven by a fascination for exploring worlds, either fictional or real, Vincent aims to create an experience with objects or installations as mediums to guide beholders through a narrative.These often have an anthropological starting point, and revolve around the human body. In his design process, a dialogue between digital tools and physical craft techniques manifest into different scales: from scenography, performance and stage design to artefacts, wearables and furniture.
The Fabricant is the digital fashion house leading the fashion industry towards a future of digital-only clothing, which operates at the intersection of fashion, gaming and blockchain. It creates its own digital-only couture collections and collaborates with brands to bring them into the 3D space. To date it has worked with Under Armour, Off-White, Vogue Singapore, Puma, Napapijri, Peak Performance and Adidas, amongst others, to demonstrate the vast creative possibilities within the digital fashion environment.
Timaeus is an artist focusing on speculative storytelling and worldbuilding narratives. He navigates this with the use of game-engine and 3D software and works within the realm of virtual filmmaking/imagery and CGI (Computer Generated Imagery). He researches how creative technologies can help us to reimagine our present and future, surrounding the topics of ecology, technology and non-human agency. By introducing these topics to the fantastical and otherworldly, he strives for a form of storytelling that challenges the Anthropocentric point of view. His work, consisting of video installations, live performances and layered animated works, has been exhibited at the International Film Festival, Fiber Festival, Amsterdam Dance Event, Gogbot, Red Light Radio, Future Intel, and more. Works have been published by De Gids and Daisyworld Magazine
Frank Bloem is a perfumer, a scent artist, and a writer. He studied visual arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. Since 2014 he is focusing on scent and the sense of smell. In 2016 Frank founded The Snifferoo, a laboratory for scent research in the broadest sense, for pleasant and unpleasant smells. Besides composing and manufacturing eau de perfumes like Alexine, Secreti del Piemontese, and Oranda Yuki, he developed for ARTIS Amsterdam Royal Zoo elephant fragrances and for the Embassy of the North Sea he collected 40 scent samples from the North Sea area, such as jellyfish, diesel, bladderwrack, chips, tar and sunscreen, which he translated into a wearable fragrance: Zeelucht – wandeling aan de Noordzee. For the exhibition Byblos (2022-23), he brought the smell of Lebanese cedar to the museum halls of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden Leiden and for the Fries Museum he created a fragrance tour accompanying the exhibition À la campagne (2022). Besides his projects such as The Snifferoo Fragrance Laboratory and The Snifferoo Smell Club, Frank collaborated with various artists. Recent collaborations include The Butterfly Effect (2022), with Mathilde Renault, he created the smell of a meteorite, and together with Richtje Reinsma he developed a ‘questioning scent’ and an ‘answering scent’ for the olfactory installation Vragen? #2 (2022). Frank was a guest lecturer at Rietveld Academy, Artemis Academy, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, and Academy of Architecture Amsterdam, and he is giving scent workshops at the art centre Mediamatic, where he is one of the supervisors of the Aroma Lab. His book Geur: De vergeten sensatie was published in November 2022 by Ten Have Uitgevers.
Cypherloom – Home of data couture, is a designer brand focused on manifesting personal meaning into fashion, accessories and interiors for individuals with a digital and culturally eclectic taste.
“With the use of data, we design hand-made products that are unique for every person. Our goal is to prompt new relationships between people and the objects they collect, inspiring the most personal experience. By collaborating with authentic designers, developers and crafts(wo)men, we combine the quality of hand-made products with innovative use of information technology, augmented reality and digital fabrication.”
Cypherloom is a collaboration between Gianni Antonia (designer) and Sara Orfali (digital artist). Their design studio is currently located at The Wasserij – incubator for innovative fashion, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Get your tickets now.
THE MESSYVERSE Closing
THE MESSYVERSE ends with a bang on Oct 6 with a special program. Be part of the immersive experience and sensory celebration of breath with ‘The Breathing Palace’ and listen to the latest insights about ‘The Digital Divide’ during a mini-lecture and panel discussion.
Would you like to join this program, but currently don’t have the means to buy a ticket? Send an e-mail to info@felixmeritis.nl to work something out.