Troika Unveils Dystopian Installation at MAK in Vienna
Exploring the liminal spaces between artificial and natural.
The artist collective Troika presents Terminal Beach an immersive installation at the MAK in Vienna, as part of the Klima Biennale Wien 2024. This exhibition, Troika’s first solo show in Austria, explores non-human intelligence, climate change adaptation, and the digital afterlife of human culture and myths.
Central to the installation is a four-minute video loop on a giant LED wall, showing a black fur-covered robot arm chopping down the last tree on Earth. This scene unfolds in a desolate, flooded landscape filled with 3D-printed digital twins of museum objects, dubbed “Grenzgänger” or “crossers.”
Eva Rucki, Conny Freyer, and Sebastien Noel of Troika aim to explore the liminal spaces between artificial and natural, living and non-living, digital and physical realms. The installation features eerie geophony sounds recorded by the British Antarctic Survey.
The barren landscape in the video extends into the exhibition space, blending the LED screen with the physical environment. Sculptures of mythical creatures like fauns, sphinxes, and centaurs, made from digitized museum artifacts, populate the flooded, color-saturated landscape. Inspired by J.G. Ballard’s 1964 sci-fi collection “The Terminal Beach,” Troika’s work reflects on the paradox of human creativity and destruction, inviting visitors to contemplate the fragile boundary between creation and annihilation in a digitally intertwined world.
Klima Biennale Wien 2024
Nordwestbahnstraße 16
1200 Wien
Austria
