Kunstverein, Munich, 2013:

Berlin-based artist Simon Denny has created a large scale site-specific installation throughout the Kunstverein’s galleries as a way to view the recent past within a rapidly-developing high-tech digital economy. Utilizing the example of Munich-based conference Digital Life Design (DLD) – a high calibre platform for the exchange of ideas between digital media, the sciences and culture – the artist has taken on the challenge of exploring the materialisation and commodification of ‚future visions and experiences’, which have become a feature of such a forward-looking venture.

Focusing solely on the conference from 2012, entitled All You Need Is … DATA?, Denny has created a display structure for 89 canvases that represent a visual summary of events from one year ago. Each one of these features photos, pull-quotes and various computer operational or app-style imagery, which alongside merchandise, banners and animated GIFs made from video documentation, illustrate the entire conference chronologically from beginning to end.

In this sense the exhibition becomes a revealing format for how predetermined futures are promoted from the perspective of the digital economy. As such, the ‘REDUX’ in the title not only suggests a revisit of future forecasts but is also indicative of the ‘Director’s Cut’ or re-edit as a means of artistic appropriation.