Andreas Greiner is known for integrating art and science in intricate, multi-disciplinary presentations and an artistic practice that often extends beyond gallery confines to encompass projects in public spaces and the natural environment.

Running through Greiner’s work are questions that unsettle existing definitions of life, its value, and the role of humans within larger—planetary—living communities.— Carson Chan, director, Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment, and curator, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA, New York (excerpt from Life Forms: Essays on the Artworks of Andreas Greiner, 2020)

In Game of Life, Andreas Greiner creates a multifaceted theatrical setting reminiscent of a surreal coffee house. Visitors encounter various works of techno-hybrid art such as a bonsai robot that moves around the space autonomously, greeting and observing them. Meanwhile, a circuit-bent Sputnik chandelier hosts a conversation between three AI chatbots engaging in speculations on the future of life on earth and pondering exit strategies for biological life forms and technology. As these artificial protagonists ramble on, coffee is brewed on the overheating chip of the computer which generates the intelligent exchange. The installation is complemented by a new series of circuit-board prints that likewise engage with themes of hope and redemption, culminating in a dehumanized version of Noah’s ark. Greiner’s work encourages reflection on critical social issues, particularly on prospective ecological challenges.

Andreas Greiner limns a complex and multifaceted portrait of artificial intelligence in his layered and technically elaborate exhibition with a theatrical air. Greiner leaves the decision on how to engage with it to us. We can use this exhibition as a literal stage and interact with non-human actors that populate it. Or we choose to see it as a game and experimental arrangement and approach it in the role of silent observers. Either way, Game of Life will unsettle our certainties about what we regard as animate and inanimate, nature and technology, or speaker and spectator, introducing us to entities whose actions, interactions, and thinking challenge us.

The above is an excerpt from the exhibition essay contributed by Dr. Christina Landbrecht, which will be published on our website and in the exhibition catalogue, available in January 2024.