Major AR exhibition curated by Acute Art opens at UCCA

From November 28 2020, to February 10, 2021, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing presents “Mirage: Contemporary Art in Augmented Reality,” a special exhibition for augmented reality (AR) organised in collaboration with Acute Art and curated by Daniel Birnbaum.

“Mirage” stands as the first major institutional project of its kind. As a medium, AR challenges preconceived notions of art and how it may be seen, erasing old hierarchies and offering new opportunities for the democratization of viewership. The artworks in the exhibition have travelled to Beijing without being physically shipped, nor with artists and their teams coming to assist with installation. While these valued features of exhibition-making cannot be directly replaced, it is nevertheless worth considering different modes of displaying art that might bypass the need for them—not merely to maneuver past the world’s currently closed borders, but also with regards to the longer term possibilities posed for audiences living beyond the edges of infrastructure networks or far from cultural hubs.

Artworks will be viewable through Acute Art’s app in locations around UCCA Center for Contemporary Art and at hotel and apartment community Stey-798, located just outside 798 Art District’s western entrance.

Participating artists include Nina Chanel Abney (b. 1982, Chicago), Darren Bader (b. 1978, Bridgeport, Connecticut), Cao Fei (b. 1978, Guangzhou), Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967, Copenhagen), KAWS (b. 1974, Jersey City, USA), and Alicja Kwade (b. 1979, Katowice, Poland).

Acute Art Artistic Director Daniel Birnbaum comments, “It should not come as much of a surprise that UCCA, known for its experimental approach to new possibilities in art, becomes the first major institution to stage an exhibition exclusively devoted to projects utilizing augmented reality. In collaboration with Acute Art, the exhibition represents a new chapter in the conversation between art and technology.”

Read more about the exhibition here.