Recycle Group mark their return to Mayfair with an ambitious and immersive installation, engaging themesof democracy, agency, and hope. In solo exhibition Sapient, Recycle Group deliver visions of a utopia conjuredby an eternal AI. Reflecting on the power-imbalances and opacity of current governmental structures, theartists conceived Sapient, an open-code algorithm combining the will of the living and the infinite to enactbureaucratic rulings. Supplanting orthodox government, Sapient would offer a transparent democracy steeredby real people and sustained by post-death data and consciousness uploads to the meta-world. A continuationof conceptual investigations by Recycle Group – spanning Venice Biennale and Pompidou interventions – at itscore Sapient aims to explore how technology could improve political fault lines.
Installations spread across two floors open a timely contemplation on the nature of human and AI relationships.Straddling the organic and online, a forest of expired links acts as a portal, where all things biotic are given theability to lead a virtual existence. Surrounding lightboxes generated by Artificial Intelligence are embeddedwith Google searches, based on key-words of the future governing order. Upstairs, full immersion into thevirtual world awaits; visitors can recline in armchairs surrounded by mesh figures set to accompany them ontheir virtual journey.
The ideals of a utopian republic permeate the space, brought about by the considered absence of any visualsymbols of power. Recycle Group had previously explored ideas of iconography in 2015's Conversion, a satelliteevent for the 56th Venice Biennale where social media symbols replaced religious imagery. In Sapient, icons arereplaced by a neutral intelligence system, and life after death is achievable via the metaverse. A new world orderis delineated through the use of '0', a universal sign of equality to the artists, acting as a 'good-terminator' andthe coordinates for the AI used throughout this exhibition.
Using the potentialities of the future, Recycle Group not only subvert ideas of contemporary religion andgovernment, but supplant them entirely.
'If society was ruled by a humanistic AI directly subordinate to humans, then there would be no war. This ideaallowed us to imagine how society could develop and how the coexistence of man and machine could look.' — Recycle Group
Formed by Andrey Blokhin (B. 1987) and Georgy Kuznetsov (B. 1985) in 2006, Recycle Group explores therealm of virtual reality using both recycled imagery and materials, their work aiming to bridge incompatiblesubjects such as the classical with the contemporary.
The artists currently live and work in Paris. Since 2010, works by the art group have been showcased on aregular basis in international galleries and various contemporary art spaces in France, Italy, UK, USA andBelgium. In 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017, the artists participated in the programme of La Biennale di Venezia.Recycle Group's large-scale installation has been featured on international facades, from the Grand Palais tothe London School of Economics. Works by Recycle Group are in public collections, including Glasstress andthe National Museum of Scotland.
Recycle group, formed by Andrey Blokhin & Georgy Kuznetsov in 2006, explore the realm of ‘Virtual Reality’ using both recycled imagery and materials. Their work aims to bridge incompatible subjects such as the classical with the contemporary, Western artistic traditions with Russian domestic realities. Since 2008 the artists have regularly participated in various group shows in Moscow, St Petersburg and other Russian cities. The year 2008 marked their first exhibition under the title Recycle. Two years later, Recycle Group won the prestigious Kandinsky Prize in the nomination “Young Artist” for their Reverse project.
Contemporary art gallery Gazelli Art House supports and presents a wide range of international artists, presenting a broad and critically acclaimed program of exhibitions to a diverse audience through international exhibition spaces in London and Baku. Gazelli Art House was founded in 2003 in Baku, Azerbaijan where it held exhibitions with Azeri artists. After hosting conceptually interlinked off-site exhibitions across London, founder and Director of Gazelli Art House, Mila Askarova, opened a permanent space on Dover Street, London in March 2012. As part of Gazelli Art House’s on-going commitment to art education, the gallery hosts a series of events and talks to run alongside each exhibition.
