Sharp, prophetic, humorous, subtle and disturbing: Being There consisted of nine very different and expansive room installations, of which five had been made specifically for this exhibition, and two others had been recently acquired for the Louisiana Collection.

The works had been made by a number of prominent young players on the global art scene: Lizzie Fitch and Ryan Trecartin, Ian Cheng, Pamela Rosenkranz, Hannah Levy, Ed Atkins, Cécile B. Evans, Louisa Gagliardi, Dora Budor and Bunny Rogers. Read more about the artists below.

BUNNY ROGERS (USA, 1990)
Bunny Rogers erected a self-initiated memorial to a dead high school student. She created an image of a collapsed reality between a physical and a virtual existence by linking a one-dimensional comic-strip universe with a number of objects in detailed craftsmanship. The work had been created for the exhibition.

LOUISA GAGLIARDI (Switzerland, 1989)
The installation Living Downstream created the illusion of a nocturnal scene featuring a number of paintings of lanterns and silent human figures. The artist paints on the computer, prints the paintings out, then applies several layers of materiality to them. The works had been created for the exhibition.

IAN CHENG (USA, 1984)
In Emissary Sunsets the Self we followed a being that navigates continuously and endlessly through an unknown, unpredictable world. It was a live simulation. What we saw came into existence as we watched; and what we saw never appeared exactly the same way again. In the artist’s own words it is like “a computer game that plays itself”.

DORA BUDOR (Croatia, 1985)
Year Without A Summer (Panton’s Diversion) combined rare readymade Verner Panton modules designed in the 1960s with falling ash that slowly covers the modules. The fall of the ash was triggered by a technology that registers the sounds of visitors in the space. The work had been created for the exhibition.

CÉCILE B. EVANS (USA/Belgium, 1983)
In the work Hyperlinks from 2014 we met a number of beings that only live in the computer: a Japanese hologram pop star, an agoraphobic YouTuber, an invisible woman and several other figures. The main character is the avatar Phil who bears an uncanny resemblance to a famous, recently deceased actor.

HANNAH LEVY (USA, 1991)
In Hannah Levy’s four works the body is coupled with the machine. The work Untitled shows a silicone cast of a set of iPhone earphones in close-up, which a pair of hands is caressing. The work almost assumes the character of a sexual instruction video, since the colour and form of the earphones as well as their treatment by the hands produce clear associations with the female sexual organ. Three of the works had been created for the exhibition.

ED ATKINS (UK, 1982)
In Ed Atkins’ installation Ribbons the body plays the central role – in an ode to carnality and mortality composed with the aid of glossy, digitally produced images. The protagonist in the work is called Dave – an avatar who seems to be imprisoned in a purgatory of repetition and boredom.

PAMELA ROSENKRANZ (Switzerland, 1979)
Anamazon (Into the Land) combined a grid of intense green and blue LED light that enveloped and over­whelmed the viewer along with sounds from the Amazon rainforest, played backwards on Amazon Echo speakers, as well as a large heap of earth, terra preta, originally a particularly fertile soil product from the Amazon basin. The work had been created for the exhibition.

LIZZIE FITCH / RYAN TRECARTIN (both USA, 1981)
Lizzie Fitch and Ryan Trecartin’s installation Lake Anticipation is a landscape in which sterile office references are linked with a natural-looking forested area. This forms the setting for a film in which we follow various groups in an abandoned Freemason temple where they almost unceasingly talk about and comment on what they (do not) experience.