TECHNO WORLDS
TECHNO WORLDS is an interdisciplinary exhibition at the intersection of music, art, pop, media, and technology. The title refers to the multifaceted techno scene, genres, and political projects that emerged from the subcultures of the 1980s to the present day, and traces the processes of cultural and economic appropriation within electronic music culture. SPACE is honored to partner with Goethe-Institut Boston on the New England iteration of this globally traveling exhibition project.
This exhibition marks a celebration of 60 years of international Goethe-Institut cultural initiatives, and 20 years of interdisciplinary programming by SPACE in Portland, Maine. This is SPACE’s second annual visiting curator exhibition program exploring multidisciplinary international works around a specific theme, following up on 2022’s Punctures: Textiles in Digital and Material Time curated by Ekrem Serdar.
TECHNO WORLDS includes photo, video and installation works by DeForrest Brown, Jr., Jaqueline Caux, Tony Cokes, Chicks on Speed, Zuzanna Czebatul, Kerstin Greiner, AbuQadim Haqq, Rangoato Hlasane, Ryõji Ikeda, Maryam Jafri, Romuald Karmakar, Robert Lippok, Henrike Naumann and Bastian Hagedorn, Carsten Nicolai, Vinca Petersen, Daniel Pflumm, Lisa Rovner, Sarah Schönfeld, Jeremy Shaw, and Tobias Zielony.
TECHNO WORLDS was curated by Mathilde Weh, Justin Hoffmann, and Creamcake. A fully illustrated catalogue is now available published by Hatje Cantz.
This traveling exhibition organized by Germany’s Goethe-Institut began in fall of 2022 at art quarter budapest (aka “aqb”), the PHI Centre in Montreal, SITE Gallery in the Silos at Sawyer Yards in Houston, Knockdown Centrer in New York City, SPACE in Portland, Maine, followed by host galleries in Los Angeles, Mexico City, Montevideo, São Paulo and Warsaw.
Maryam Jafri’s Model 500 crossword puzzle and the (spoiler alert at this second link!) crossword answers can be found online here.
About the Curators
Mathilde Weh is a curator, musician, and artist who served as a consultant in the visual arts department of the Goethe-Institut headquarters in Munich until 2022. She advised Goethe-Institut art projects abroad and was curator of the touring exhibition Geniale Dilletanten – Subkultur der 1980er-Jahre in Deutschland, for which she published the exhibition catalogue under the same title together with Leonhard Emmerling (Hatje Cantz). A former radio editor, she engages intensively with the topics of subcultures, art, and music and takes part in events and discussions organized by institutions and universities, including the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, Germany. Weh initiated the project TECHNO WORLDS.
Justin Hoffmann is a curator, musician (member of FSK), and art historian. Besides running the art institution Kunstverein Wolfsburg since 2004, he has lectured at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Zurich University of the Arts, Braunschweig University of Art, and Merz Akademie Stuttgart, among others, and was a visiting professor at the Art University Linz. Hoffmann is the author of numerous artist catalogues, and the editor of thematic publications including Work Fiction (2007), In the Shadows (2008), Best of 50 Years (2010), Learning From Detroit (2014), Snap Your Identity (2020).
Creamcake (CC) is a Berlin-based interdisciplinary platform, negotiating the point of convergence in electronic music, contemporary art, and digital technologies. Distanced from normative social structures, CC moves in fluid processes of thought and action and engages with current social issues of the present through diverse projects.Tomke Braun, Daniela Seitz and Anja Weigl, organize exhibitions, performances, concerts, symposia, DJ sets, digital projects, and workshops, including 3hd Festival (since 2015), Paradise Found (2019), インフラ INFRA (2017), Europool (2017-2019), and <Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer> (2018–2019). As a queer-feminist nomadic space, CC has cooperated with a variety of clubs, community spaces, and institutions such as Berghain, Klosterruine, OHM, Südblock, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, KW Institute for Contemporary Art / Bob’s Pogo Bar, and WWWβ.
TECHNO WORLDS in Portland has been made possible with generous support from the Goethe-Institut Boston, as well as generous funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Moser Family Foundation for SPACE’s anniversary year programming initiatives.