Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (Mexico/Canada)


Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/

was born in Mexico City in 1967. In 1989 he received a B.Sc. in Physical Chemistry from Concordia University in Montréal, Canada.

Electronic artist, develops large-scale interactive installations in public space, usually deploying new technologies and custom-made physical interfaces. Using robotics, projections, sound, internet and cell-phone links, sensors and other devices, his installations aim to provide “temporary antimonuments for alien agency”. His work has been commissioned for events such as the Millennium Celebrations in Mexico City (1999), the Cultural Capital of Europe in Rotterdam (2001), the United Nations’ World Summit of Cities in Lyon (2003), the opening of the Yamaguchi Centre for Art and Media in Japan (2003) and the Expansion of the European Union in Dublin (2004).

His work in kinetic sculpture, responsive environments, video installation and photography has been shown in two dozen countries, including Art Basel Unlimited (Switzerland), the Sydney Biennale (Australia), the Liverpool Biennial (UK), the Shanghai Biennial (China), the Itaú Cultural (Brazil), the Istanbul Biennial (Turkey), the ARCO art fair (Spain), Bienal de la Habana (Cuba), Architecture and Media Biennale (Austria), Laboratorio Arte Alameda (Mexico), the Musée des Beaux Arts (Canada), European Media Art Festival (Germany) and others. His work is in private and public contemporary art collections such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Jumex collection in Mexico and the Daros Foundation in Zürich.

At the Prix Ars Electronica in Austria, his pieces have received a Golden Nica, a distinction and two honourable mentions. He also won two BAFTA British Academy Awards for Interactive Art in London, “Best Installation” at the IDMA awards in Toronto, a “Design Review Gold Award” given by I.D. Magazine, a Cyberstar award in Cologne, a distinction at the SFMOMA Webby Awards in San Francisco, “Artist/performer of the year” at Wired Magazine’s Rave Awards, an Excellence Prize at the CG Arts Media Art Festival in Tokyo, WTN award in the Arts Category, a Rockefeller fellowship, a Langlois Grant, the Trophée des Lumières in Lyon, HorizonZero best interactive installation and an International Bauhaus Award in Dessau, Germany.

He has given many workshops and conferences, most recently at Goldsmiths college and The Bartlett school of architecture in London, ICC in Tokyo, Loopholes symposium at Harvard, at the MIT MediaLab, the Guggenheim Museum, IDCA in Aspen, LA MOCA, Netherlands Architecture Institute, UC Berkeley, Berlin Transmediale, British National Museum of Photography and the Art Institute of Chicago.

His writing has been published in Kunstforum (Germany), Leonardo (USA), Performance Research (UK), Telepolis (Germany), Movimiento Actual (Mexico), Archis (Netherlands), Aztlán (USA) and other art and media publications. He has been in several international juries and committees, including the Fondation Daniel Langlois, ISEA, Hexagram, Prix Milia d’Or in Cannes, GMD in Bonn, the International Art and A-life award and Cyberconf in Madrid. He has been a resident artist twice at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada.

Exhibitions

“Homographies, Subsculpture 7”
o Sydney Biennale (curator: Charles Merewhether), Art Gallery of New South Wales, June 2006.

“Entanglement, Subsculpture 6”
o Volta, Guy Bärtschi, Basel, June 2006.
o ARCO, bitforms gallery, Madrid, February 2006.
o Dataspace (curator: Priamo Lozada), Laboratorio Alameda, Mexico, December 2005.
o Art Basel Miami, OMR Gallery, December 2005.
o Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, November 2005.

“Under Scan, Relational Architecture 11”
o Large scale public art commission for East Midlands Development Agency
Lincoln: Brayford University Campus, November to December 2005
Leicester: Humberstone Gate West, January 2006
Northampton: Market Square, February 2006
Derby: Market Square, February to March 2006
Nottingham: Castle Wharf, March 2006

“Subtitled Public”
o Cultural Capital of Europe (curator: Jeffrey Shaw), Luxemburg 2007
o Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros (curators: Itala Schmelz, Jennifer Teets), Mexico City, April-May 2005
o Dataspace Exhibition (curator: Priamo Lozada), Conde Duque Art Center, Madrid, February-March 2005

“Glories of Accounting, Subsculpture 5”
o Pre-Emptive (curator: Philippe Pirotte), Kunsthalle Bern, August 2006.
o Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, November 2005.
o ARCO Black Box (curator: Mark Tribe), bitforms gallery, Madrid, February 2005

“Synaptic Caguamas, Subsculpture 4”
o Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, November 2005.
o ARCO, OMR Gallery, Madrid, February 2005
o Art Basel Miami, OMR Gallery, December 2004
o OMR Gallery, Mexico City, November to December 2004.

“Inspired by Real Events”
o Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, November 2005.
o ARCO, bitforms gallery, February 2005.
o OMR Gallery, Mexico City, November to December 2004.

“Standards and Double Standards, Subsculpture 3”
o Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, November 2005.
o Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai Art Museum (curators: Xu Jiang, Sebastián López, Shengtian Zheng and Zhang Qing). China, October-November 2004.
o Art Basel 35, Unlimited, OMR Gallery. Basel, Switzerland, June 2004.

“Sitestepper, Relational Architecture No. 10”
o LA MOCA Digital Gallery (curators: Alma Ruiz and Lisa Mark). Los Angeles, June 2004.

“Frequency and Volume, Relational Architecture No. 9”
o Musée d’Art Contemporain, Elektra Festival (curator: Alain Thibault). Montréal, Québec, May 2005.
o ICC, Art Meets Media (curator: Fumihiko Sumitomo), Tokyo, Japan, January-March 2005
o Navigator exhibition, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (curator: Jun-Jieh Wang), Taichung, Taiwan, July-September 2004.
o Laboratorio Arte Alameda (curator: Priamo Lozada). Mexico City, May-June 2003

“Amodal Suspension, Relational Architecture No. 8”
o http://www.amodal.net
o Opening project of the Yamaguchi Center for Art and Media (curators: Yukiko Shikata and Kazunao Abe). Yamaguchi, Japan, November 2003.
Access Pods and terminals for the piece were installed at MACBA in Barcelona, MARS Lab in Bonn, C3 in Budapest, Fundación Telefónica in Buenos Aires, MIT MediaLab in Cambridge, Bauhaus in Dessau, IAMAS in Ogaki, ZKM in Karlsruhe, Kyoto Art Center in Kyoto, FACT in Liverpool, Science Museum in London, Ojo Atómico in Madrid, Laboratorio Arte Alameda in Mexico City, SAT in Montréal, Sarai in New Delhi, Eyebeam in New York City, Wood Street Galleries in Pittsburgh, V2_Organisatie in Rotterdam, Itaú Cultural Center in São Paulo, Sendai Mediatheque in Sendai, Art Center Nabi in Seoul, NTT-ICC in Tokyo, MeSci in Tokyo, Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, Emily Carr in Vancouver, WRO Center in Wroclaw and Multimedia Institute in Zagreb.
o Caleidoscopios (curator: Gustavo Romano), Centro Cultural de España en Buenos Aires, Argentina, marzo 2006 (site).

“Literal Intervention”
o Comunidad de Madrid (curator: Berta Sichel), ARCO, February 2006.
o Scrabble (curator: Álvaro Rodriguez Fominaya), Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas, November 2005 to January 2006.
o Salón Bancomer (curators: José Luis Barrios, José Manuel Springer y Sylvia Navarrete), Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City, November 2004 to February 2005.
o LOOP, Galería Metropolitana, Barcelona, November 2004.
o Paris Photo, Statement Project Room (curator: Daniela Franco). Paris, November 2003.

“1000 Platitudes / 1000 Usos Tópicos”
o ARCO, OMR Gallery, Madrid, February 2006.
o Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, November 2005
o bitforms gallery Seoul, September 2005.
o Art Basel, OMR Gallery, Basel, June 2005.
o Art Brussels, Guy Bärtschi Gallery, April 2005.
o Art Cologne, bitforms gallery, October 2004.
o ARCO, OMR Gallery, Madrid, February 2004.
o Art Basel Miami, OMR Gallery. Miami, December 2003.
o Fundación Bancaja, The Radiant City Exhibition (curator: Achille Bonito Oliva). Valencia, Spain, June to August 2003.
o bitforms gallery (curator: Steve Sacks). NYC, April to May 2003.

“Two Origins, Relational Architecture No. 7”
o Place du Capitole, Printemps de Septembre Festival (curator: Marta Gili). Toulouse, September 2002.

“Body Movies, Relational Architecture No. 6”
o Avenue of the Stars, Hong Kong, November 2006.
o Duisburg Akzente, Duisburg, Germany, May 2003.
o Liverpool Biennial, Produced by FACT (curators: Eddie Berg, Jo McGonigal, et.al.). Liverpool, UK, September 2002.
o Ars Electronica Festival (curator: Gerfried Stocker). Linz, Austria, September 2002.
o SAPPHIRE 02, Lisbon, Portugal, September 2002.
o Cultural Capital of Europe Festival, V2 Grounding (curators: Alex Adriaansens and Andreas Broeckmann). Rotterdam, Netherlands, August 2001.
o Millennium Dialogue exhibition (curator: Alex Adriaansens), Millennium Museum, Beijing (video).
E-phos Festival, Athens, Greece, October 2002 (video).
o Open, New Designs for Open Space, Van Alen Institute, New York, June-October 2003 (photos).
o E-phos Festival, Athens, Greece, October 2002 (video).
o 6th International Festival for Architecture in Video, Florence, Italy, May 2002 (video).

“33 Questions per Minute, Relational Architecture No. 5”
o Armory Show, NY 2006
o Spots Mediafaçade, with realities:united, Postdamer Platz 10, Berlin, December 2005-January 2006
o Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, November 2005
o ZKM, Algorithmic Revolution (curators: Peter Weibel, Sabine Himmelsbach and others). Karlsruhe, October 2004 to November 2005.
o Scrabble (curator: Álvaro Rodriguez Fominaya), Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas, November 2005 to January 2006 (projection).
o MUSAC, León (curators: Agustín Pérez Rubio and Rafael Doctor), May 2005.
o Centro cultural de España, México, May 2005 (projection).
o SAT, Montréal, September 2004 (projection).
o Art Basel, Galería OMR, Basel, June 2004.
o ARCO, Galería OMR, Madrid, February 2004.
o Art Basel Miami, OMR Gallery. Miami, December 2003.
o bitforms gallery (curator: Steve Sacks). NYC, April to May 2003.
o Dundee Contemporary Art, Ill Communication (curator: Rob Tufnell). Dundee, Scotland, January to March 2003.
o Itau Cultural, Emoçao Art.ficial, Sao Paulo, Brazil, August 2002.
o Conde Duque, Cibervisión 2 (curator: Karin Ohlenschläger). Madrid, Spain, March 2002.
o Istanbul Biennial (curator: Yuko Hasegawa). Turkey, September 2001.
o Bienal de la Habana (curator: Ibis Hernández, Magda González, et.al.). Havana, Cuba, November 2000.

“Vectorial Elevation, Relational Architecture No. 4”
o http://www.alzado.net
o EU expansion celebrations, O’Connell Street, Dublin, Ireland, April-May 2004.
o Fête des Lumières, Place Bellecour, (curator: Claire Peillod), Lyon, France December 2003.
o Opening of Artium, Basque Contemporary Art Museum (curator: Juan Guardiola and Javier González de Durana). Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, April 2002.
o Zócalo Square, Mexico City, December 1999 to January 2000
o Wood Street Gallery, Critical Conditions (curator: Timothy Druckrey). Pittsburgh, March to May 2003 (documentary installation).
o Observatori, Resonancias (curator: Nekane Aramburu). Valencia, october 2002 (web).
o Ifema, MAD01 (curator: Karin Ohlenschläger). Madrid, August 2001 (documentary installation).
o Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan, March 2001 (web site).
o Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Interactiva00 (curator: Raúl Ferrera-Balanquet). Mérida, México, March 2001 (web site).
o ARCO Art Fair, Net.artmadrid (curator: José Luis Brea). Madrid, February 2001 (web site).
o Int. Festival for Architecture in Video, University of Florence, Italy, December 2000 (video).
o Fournos Center, Mediaterra 2000 (curator: Priamo Lozada). Athens, Greece, November 2000 (documentary installation).
o Splitski Filmski Festival, Split, Croatia, September 2000 (web site).
o Ars Electronica Festival, OK Center, Linz, Austria, September 2000 (documentary installation).
o Museum of Image and Sound, File, São Paulo, Brazil, August to September 2000 (web site).
o Sala d’Exposicions de la Caixa de Sabadell, Art electrònic a Espanya (curator: Claudia Gianetti). Sabadell, May 2000 (web site).

“Airport Cluster”
o Art Cologne, Galería Metropolitana, Cologne, October 2005.
o Foto/Graphik Galerie Kaethe Kollwitz (curator: Pat Binder). Berlin, February 2001.

“Re:Positioning Fear, Relational Architecture No.3”
o http://rhizome.org/object.rhiz?2398
o 3rd Internationale Biennale Film+Architektur (curator: Charlotte Pöchacker). Graz, Austria, November 1997.
o Medienkunstpreis 2000, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany, (video).
o Interactive Urban Landscapes, Copenhagen, Denmark, December 1999 (video).
o Image architettura in movimento, Turin, Italy, December 1998 (video).
o Festival de Video de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, November 1998 (web site).
o Viper 98 webart selection, Lucerne, Switzerland, May 1998 (web site).
o Lo Mejor de los dos Mundos (curator: José Luis Brea). Cuenca, Spain, February 1998 (web site).

“Displaced Emperors, Relational Architecture No. 2”
o Ars Electronica Festival, Remote Sensations (curator: Gerfried Stocker). Linz, Austria, September 1997.

“The Able Skin” Immersive VR installation with robotic lighting, featuring impossible architecture by Emilio López-Galiacho.
o Next Festival, Karlstad, Sweden, March 2000.
o Art Futura, Sevilla, October 1999.
o Museo de Monterrey, Arte Virtual, Realidad Plural (curator: Karin Ohlenschläger). Monterrey, Mexico, Nov. 1997 to Jan. 1998.
o MOPU, Festival Internacional de Info-arquitectura (curator: Karin Ohlenschläger). Madrid, February 1997.
o Apple Computer, Cupertino, California, November 1996.

“Idle Hands” installation of a large interactive human hand, featuring interactive music by Steve Gibson.
o Nova Scotia Community College, Halifax, Canada, May 1996.
o European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, Germany, September 1995.
o Forskningscentrum fur Informatik. Univ. of Karlstad, Sweden, May 1995.

“The External Interior (Interactive Spectator)” touch-screen multimedia installation, where the roles of the spectator and the multimedia program are reversed.
o Ex-caotica group show, Galeria Cruce, Madrid, June 1995.

“The Trace, Remote Insinuated Presence” telepresence installation where two remote participants are invited to occupy the same telematic space.
o Musée des Beaux Arts, Yo y mi Circunstancia (curators: Paloma Porraz and Guillermo Santamarina). Montréal, Nov. 1999 – Feb. 2000.
o ARCO’95 Art Fair, Fundacion Arte y Tecnologia (curator: Laila Ichikawa). Madrid, February 1995.
o Actual ’96. Logroño, Spain, January 1996 (video).
o Theater, Music, Dance and New Technologies. Torino, Italy, June 1995 (video).
o Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Infografía en España series (curator: Karin Ohlenschläger). Madrid, April 1995 (video).

Contribution to “Open Bridge” web group show, shown in venues in several countries 1995-1996.

“Surface Tension” interactive eye.
o Art Basel, OMR Gallery, Basel, June 2005.
o ARCO, OMR Gallery, Madrid, February 2005.
o OMR Gallery, Mexico City, November to December 2004.
o Akademie der Bildenden Kunste. Nuremberg, Germany, November 1993.
o Tomorrow’s Realities. SIGGRAPH’93, Anaheim, California, August 1993.
o 2!M VR Exhibition, Comunidad de Madrid. Madrid, April 1993.

“Superficial Manifesto” multimedia piece with several interactive modules.
o En-red-arte, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, June 1993.
o ARCO’93 Art Fair, Videoarco, Madrid, February 1993.

“History is a Rolodex” photo installation.
o Memoires Vives group show, Infographie Canada, Montréal, May 1992.

“On the Same Hand but in a Different Vein” solo show with 4 installations.
o Galerie Stornaway. Montreal, February 1992.

“The Dancers Answer Questions” video-campfire installation at dusk.
o Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, June 1990.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer participates in

  • JavaMuseum
  • Visions up_and_down