FAD Magazine

FAD Magazine covers contemporary art – News, Exhibitions and Interviews reported on from London

Shu Lea Cheang gets first museum survey at Haus der Kunst in Munich.

Haus der Kunst in Munich will present the first museum survey of Shu Lea Cheang, featuring her work over the past three decades updated into new landscape formations.

The exhibition “KI$$ KI$$”opens to the public on Valentine’s Day 14th February 2025 and runs until 3rd August 2025. 

“KI$$ KI$$” takes Shu Lea Cheang’s first feature film Fresh Kill (1994) as a starting point to present the artist and filmmaker’s world-building practices. Cheang (b. 1954, Taiwan) moved to New York in the 1980s, where she joined the vibrant scene of independent cinema and started experimenting with video, live TV, and network technologies. Since the 1990s her work has challenged and furthered our understanding of digital culture. Cheang anticipated the advance of alternative currencies, investigated gamified societies, and probed biotechnologies. Her works often develop over several years, through different stages and media, including video, installation, performance, and various forms of cinema.

The exhibition updates works and artefacts into new landscape formations extending through four gallery spaces. Waste appears as a primary theme that leads Cheang’s investigation into the entanglement of biosphere and technosphere. Each gallery is its own world in which internet-based installation, software interaction, and multiplayer performance invite the audience to explore and play.

“KI$$ KI$$” reimagines the exhibition as a transformative journey, or a “machine of experi­ence”. From a different angle but in dialogue with the ongoing exhibition Philippe Parreno.Voices, Shu Lea Cheang’s daring science-fiction narratives focus on non-human intelligences both natural and artificial. Engaging with new and ancient technologies, the exhibition continues Haus der Kunst’s engagement with contemporary and emerging transmedia art practices, following exhibitions by Dumb Type, Tony Cokes, and WangShui.

To accompany the exhibition, an illustrated catalogue featuring a conversation between Shu Lea Cheang and Curator, Sarah Johanna Theurer, along with an essay on selected archival materials and the first comprehensive bibliography of the artist’s work, providing an entry point into her diverse practice spanning installation, software interaction, video, film, and multiplayer performance, will be available from late February.

The exhibition Shu Lea Cheang. KI$$ KI$$ at Haus der Kunst is curated by Sarah Johanna Theurer with Laila Wu.

Shu Lea Cheang KI$$ KI$$, 14th February 2025 – 3rd August 2025 Haus der Kunst

All Images: Shu Lea Cheang. KI$$ KI$$ Exhibition view Haus der Kunst Munich, 2025 Photo: Milena Wojhan

It has received in-kind support from LG Electronics, IT Business. Haus der Kunst is supported by: Free State of Bavaria, Gesellschaft der Freunde Haus der Kunst e.V., Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung, Ulli und Uwe Kai-Stiftung.

Following the exhibition at Haus der Kunst, Tate Modern will stage the world premiere of Hagay Dreaming, a new performance by Shu Lea Cheang and Dondon Hounwn in The Tanks between 13th – 15th March 2025. The programme is presented in collaboration with the international festival Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.

Categories

Tags

Related Posts

Trending Articles

Join the FAD newsletter and get the latest news and articles straight to your inbox

* indicates required