
AATB
AATB
Andrea Annerand Thibault Brevet
Andrea Annerand Thibault Brevet
©Dirk Rose | Stiftung Zollverein
Andrea Anner and Thibault Brevet – founders of AATB – are artists, both graduates from ECAL. Their ongoing research around human/machine interactions led them to investigate the potential of robotics and industrial automation to exist outside the realm of factory floors. Their artistic practice involves a tight connection and understanding of manufacturing processes, ranging from software programming, electronics to mechanical engineering and precision machining. Reflecting on the dissemination and assimilation of robotics into mundane activities, their work critically explores novel situations arising from these shifts.
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Their work has been exhibited in institutions such as ZKM (Karlsruhe), V&A (Dundee), Ars Electronica (Linz), Chengdu Biennale (Chengdu), New Museum (New York), Venice Biennale of Architecture, Zollverein (Essen), Unfold X (Seoul), APS Museum (Shanghai), HEK (Basel), Istanbul Design Biennial, Milan Design Week, Museum für Gestaltung (Zürich). AATB have been artists in residence at CERN and at Atelier Luma in Arles. They have been awarded the Swiss Design Award in 2021.
AATB have been teaching in most Swiss Art and Design universities (ZHDK, ECAL, HEAD, FHNW, HKB, SUPSI), as well as internationally: Seoul University of the Arts, Design Academy Eindhoven, HFG Karlsruhe, Iceland University of the Arts, amongst others. They have been lecturing and speaking at conferences internationally: Tokyo, Prague, The Hague, Seoul, Madrid, Berlin, Cannes, Torino.
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Beijing Art and Technology Biennale — Earthwise
Group Exhibition at the Beijing Art and Technology Biennale
26 October 2024 — 23 February 2025
Curated by Naiyi Wang; project supported by Pro Helvetia
Genesis Art Gallery, Beijing, China
The Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (BATB) is the world’s first biennial dedicated to the intersection of art, science and technology that was launched in 2022. It aims to be an international platform for a broad range of practitioners from the fields of art, science and technology, and to support new artistic engagements and interventions in the context of advanced technologies, such as emerging biotechnologies, life sciences, etc. BATB manifests through exhibitions, public programmes, publications, and symposiums, as well as structural and systemic initiatives, bringing together practitioners from the fields of art, science, and climatology, among many others.
Images curtesy of the artists
HEK (House of Electronic Arts)— 10 years anniversary
10 years of HEK and Atelier Mondial at Freilager-Platz
16 November 2024
HEK — House of Electronic Arts, Basel, Switzerland
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of HEK and Atelier Mondial at Freilager-Platz, HEK is showcasing program highlights from the past, Big Players being one of them.
Images curtesy of the artists
Klöntal Triennale — In a State of Flow
Group Exhibition
1 September — 31 September 2024
Klöntal Triennale, Glarus, Switzerland
The third edition of the Klöntal Triennale expands its scope by taking place at the Legler Areal, a remnant of the former textile industry. Viewed through a contemporary lens, the industrial revolution seems less promising than it did 170 years ago. Nevertheless, the Legler Areal remains a significant site where the future was once shaped. Thanks to the rivers and streams, Glarnerland developed into one of the most industrialized regions in Switzerland. Starting in the mid-nineteenth century, the textile industry flourished, with water-powered fabric printing works, spinning, and weaving mills producing goods that circulated worldwide. The Legler family started with a mechanical weaving mill in 1857, supplied European haute couture with printed fabrics a hundred years later, and held a monopoly on denim production in Europe in the 1970s. Production ceased in 2002, leaving the architectural witnesses to this history empty ever since.
Once a hub of flourishing industry and entrepreneurship, today the area tells a story of industrial decline, with its collateral emigration, rural exodus, and today’s stagnation, in a way that echoes the worldwide upheavals that have taken place on the planet since the nineteenth century. From a broader perspective, global capitalism is increasingly seen as unconvincing, with its destructive potential becoming ever more apparent. Many negative effects from this period—characterized by international (often asymmetrical) trade relations due to colonial entanglements and difficult working conditions for local and foreign workers—remain unresolved. Even the brief hope that the area would transform into an oasis for digital nomads is gradually fading. Currently, the former production complex in the seemingly idyllic mountain landscape faces an uncertain future.
On the occasion of the third Klöntal Triennale, artistic interventions will revitalize the area, imbuing it with new momentum between the past and a speculative future. In September 2024, the site will undergo a multilayered, temporary, and critical transformation. Starting with the unique context of the Legler Areal, its historical evolution, and its paradigmatic nature in relation to similar situations worldwide, the artists have explored themes that extend well beyond this singular case. The Legler Areal serves as a case study for those interested in examining industrial development, trade, production, colonialism, labor, transformation, economy, energy and resource use, tourism, and even gender dynamics, given that much of the labor was provided by women. This postindustrial scenario, with its current uncertainties, tells us a lot about our recent past and the challenges we face today as we strive to foster greater togetherness, honor the ghosts of the past, and envision brighter futures.
Themes like metamorphosis and the flow of water, once pivotal to powering factory generators, resonate throughout the exhibition and the extensive performance program. Current technological developments are also addressed, from the flow of water to the flow of data; from industrial piecework—often performed by women—to flexible, hyperlocal jobs, migration, and the globalized flows of goods. The transformation of infrastructures, the supposed standstill in the periphery, and speculative ideas for the future are also explored. Thus, the seemingly isolated “hinterland” remains in constant motion: IN A STATE OF FLOW, in a temporary, almost enchanting moment of revival and densification.
Curators: Séverine Fromaigeat, Sabine Rusterholz Petko
Assistance: Ivana Milenković
Communication: Jenni Schmitt
Graphic design: Huber/Sterzinger
Technical team: Tomas Baumgartner, Hansjörg Eisenhut, Attila Panczel, Florian Wagner
Sound tech: Felix Friedrich
Furniture: Monika Schori
Images curtesy of the artists.
Seoul Foundation for the Arts and Culture — Unfold X
Group Exhibition Shaping the Future: A new art ecosystem mediated by technology
7 November — 19 November 2022
Seoul Foundation for the Arts and Culture, Seoul, South Korea
Technology has changed and developed at full speed including the World Wide Web. It was invented in 1989 on the basis of hypertexts and hyperlinks to improve communications, and has created a new hyper-connected world with full access and speed for anyone, anywhere. Humans and technologies have evolved together as the former becoming more dependent and the latter becoming more indispensable with the rapid rise and development of information and technology. Technologies in the age of information are creating diverse cohabiting relationships with humans, establishing highly intriguing 21-century art and media ecosystems.
Shaping the Future stirs questions on the changing relationship between art and technology, showcasing unexpected “happenings” that occurred in the process of humans collaborating with technologies and the art capacity building a symbiotic relationship with technologies. How can artists surrounded by the technology-mediated environment co-exist and strike a balance?
Do they welcome the encounter with data ecosystems organized on the basis of complex relationships? Will artificial creativity involving AI, ML, and GAN further boost humans’ imagination? Or will it make artists complacent and unmotivated? Will digital ecosystems grant artists eternal freedom without the limit of time and space? These ongoing discourses and debates on the relationship between art and technology, along with artists’ concerns are still unresolved.
Text by: Unfold X
©Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture
Zurich Design Biennale
Group Exhibition at the Zurich Design Biennale
12 August — 5 September 2021
Zurich Design Biennale, Zurich, Switzerland
Rooting is a modular tile system for outdoor flooring. Its striking design is based on algorithms that create patterns found in nature. Rooting”permits the growth of plants, grasses and mosses and was developed by AATB in collaboration with Atelier Luma / Luma Arles 2018–2020.
Rooting is an extensive family of concrete slabs where half of the volume is filled with soil to allow plants, grasses and mosses to grow. The back of Rooting is pierced by large and small holes like a good Swiss cheese. This permeable design allows water to drain away while allowing plants to take root.
There are three different types of tiles: core, transitional and perimeter tiles: They can be lined up seamlessly, and each module can be rotated 90 degrees to match neighbouring modules. This offers flexibility to cover variable areas with a non-repeating pattern to create unique spaces, terraces and pathways. And, not to forget: Rooting complies with general accessibility regulations and standards.
The Rooting pattern is based on the "Reaction Diffusion" algorithm, which is responsible for pattern formation in nature, such as animal hides and skins or shells. AATB has developed a software that uses the same algorithm for this purpose and makes it possible to grow your own patterns–different parameters produce different patterns.
Rooting was developed by AATB in collaboration with Atelier Luma / Luma Arles 2018–2020 was awarded with the Swiss Design Awards 2021.
V&A Dundee — Soap Opera
Solo Presentation
14 September — 28 October 2019
V&A Museum Dundee, United Kingdom
V&A Dundee has unveiled an industrial robot that has been programmed to blow bubbles in the upper hall of the museum.
Soap Opera has been created by Andrea Anner and Thibault Brevet, founders of the non-industrial robot practice AATB, which specialises in transforming industrial robots into playful installations.
During their research they studied how bubbles have historically been used to symbolise the fragile nature of life and human creativity. Depictions of bubbles can be found in numerous European paintings including works by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin and Édouard Manet. Rembrandt even included a soap bubble in a painting of Cupid, thought to symbolise the fragility of love.
The installation consists of a UR10 robotic arm designed to work alongside humans in factories performing tasks that require precision and reliability, such as unloading large items from pallets. But instead of an industrial tool, it has been fitted with a wand and circular hoop which dips into a tank of soapy liquid.
The arm has been programmed to slowly move into position before speeding up and tracing an arc to produce bubbles. Despite each movement being identical, every bubble is different and lasts just a few seconds before bursting in mid-air.
Soap Opera encourages people to look differently at robotics and consider how they can be used to create playful experiences, beyond their industrial origins.
Text by: V&A Dundee
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Images curtesy of the artists
Ars Electronica — Out of the Box
Group Exhibition at Festival
5 September — 9 September 2019
Linz, Austria
How many more sunsets will humanity see? Like all life on Earth, the biology of our bodies is attuned to the cycles of the sun. When our days resolve around the glow of screens instead of the warmth of the sun, will we become forever out of sync with the rhythms of the natural world?
Sunny Side Up, a robotic sun developed by studio AATB, proposes a contemporary take on the archaic typology of the sundial. It reproduces the visible movements of the Sun as the Earth rotates and orbits around it. From sunrise to high noon and sunset, Sunny Side Up brings the movement of this celestial body close to the viewer. The artificial sun orbits around a metal rod, casting a shadow and allowing the measurement of time, as well as the enabling viewers to reconnect with celestial events.
In the age of Anthropocene, Sunny Side Up raises questions on our current disconnect from the planet and circadian rhythms. In a world where productivity and work cycles ignore natural rhythms, can this artificial sun serve as a timely reminder of when to start and when to stop. This man-made sun interrogates the artificial construction of nature and the technological quest to harness it throughout time.
The Ars Electronica Festival premiered on September 18, 1979. This pilot project was designed to take the Digital Revolution’s emergence as an occasion to scrutinize potential futures and to focus these inquiries on the nexus of art, technology and society.
Images curtesy of the artists