Collective Worldbuilding - Art in the Metaverse at the HEK

In recent years, a variety of virtual spaces have caused a sensation. Exhibitions, concerts and parties are staged in game worlds like Fortnite or blockchain-based virtual worlds like Dezentraland, Sandbox or Cryptovoxels. We speak of metaverses, virtual parallel worlds in which we can immerse ourselves in order to interact with others. Artists create their own virtual worlds, but they also appropriate existing worlds by playing and infiltrating these digital spaces with their projects.

The internet creates communities

In the current exhibition Collective Worldbuilding - Art in the Metaverse of the House of Electronic Arts (HEK) will present artistic projects that use these spaces as opportunities for collaborative work and explore the creative use of virtual universes to tell stories, share experiences and address issues related to the development of technologies such as Web3 and future inclusive and diverse metaverses.

Since its inception, artists have used the internet not only as a medium but as an infrastructure for building communities and developing non-institutional distribution models. Decentralised technologies such as blockchain now offer new approaches to rethinking systems for production, funding and community building in the arts.

The exhibition accordingly presents phenomena that deal with the possibilities of decentralised communality and corresponding organisational structures, such as the new work by artist and Web3 pioneer Sarah Friend conceived for the exhibition.

The exhibition is supported by the Vontobel Foundation, Novartis and Rapp AG. Every first Sunday of the month is Happy Sunday, when admission to the exhibition is free.

More info and times on the guided tours and walking tours: www.hek.ch

Source: HEK