Center of Doubt

Center of Doubt is a long-term artistic research project by the Estonian visual artist Ivar Veermäe. The aim of the project is to explore and visualize the disappearance and reappearance of network technology, its infrastructure and representation.

Center of Doubt is a collection of visual traces depicting the data industry of our times.

Two different approaches provide insight into the complicated and somehow opaque nature of the topic of data centres and (tele)communication technologies: on the one hand, it is an investigation about the materiality and the local circumstances of the infrastructure; while, on the other hand an attempt to offer an alternative visual representation on the issues connected to information technology, which are mainly presented as "cloudy" rhetoric and visuals in advertisement; science-fiction images; or overdriven military language.

The appearance of the commercial 'cloud computing', or more precisely the data centres and their supporting infrastructure, is depicted as a turning point of a new era of centralized internet: big corporations are in a competition to gain a fundamental status for their software and hardware, acting as a basic informational layer.

The work of visual artist and photographer Ivar Veermäe (born 1982 in Talinn, Estonia; lives in Berlin) circles around questions of public space, networks and new technologies. As a result of long-term artistic research by means of photography, film and sound, his works are presented in versatile ways (such as video, on-site installations, interactive works and performances, also in public space).Ivar Veermäe aims to document and analyse the infrastructure underlying our contemporary culture of data and information. His projects show a processual, still evolving and therefore non-finite character that enables further discussions.

The Aquarium

A new exhibition format

The launch of the Aquarium represents the beginning of a new exhibition format at the Edith-Russ-Haus. For the first time, the seminar room with its large outward facing windows will be used for exhibitions. Young and local artists will be invited to communicate directly with the city in a playful, experimental and flexible way. Mobile, variable exhibition architectures allow the artists manifold opportunities to present projection screens, monitors or other traditional art formats.

The title of the format, Aquarium, once again reflects the way in which the viewer observes the exhibition—they stand before the Aquarium,  but cannot go inside. Media art, which usually takes place in the ‘white cube’ of the museum or the ‘black box’ of the theatre, thus opens a window onto the urban space.

Curated by Edit Molnár & Marcel Schwierin.