Sahej Rahal

Mythmachine

Starting from an analysis of the conditions of the world and contemporary society, Sahej Rahal develops, between game design and storytelling, the project Mythmachine.
In a collapsing world in which biology and technological progress try to absorb all aspects of being, the artist thinks about a possible escape between the real and the imaginary.

Rahal takes as an example his country of origin India, "a place of collapse of time" in which the caste system, based on the mythical and religious precepts of Hinduism, for centuries has imposed a rigid hierarchy that still influences social balances. The artist gives life to Mythmachine project that evokes a cybernetic sensorium of coexistence, beyond the limits of human finitude. Viewers encounter a virtual biome populated by post-human creatures. Polymorphic beings driven by artificial intelligence. These creatures capture audio feedback in physical space and interact with it through dance. Drawing on the sonic chaos of the physical world, Mythmachine begins to generate an infinitely incomputable song, about the porous boundaries of mind, machine, myth and memory.

Sahej Rahal is primarily a storyteller. He weaves together fact and fiction, to create countermythologies that interrogate narratives shaping the present. His myth-world takes the shape of sculptures, performances, films, paintings, installations, and AI programs, that he creates by drawing upon sources ranging from local legends to science fiction, rendering scenarios where indeterminate beings emerge from the cracks of our civilization.
Rahal’s participation in group and solo exhibitions includes Manifesta 14, the Gwangju Biennale, the Liverpool Biennial, the Kochi Biennale, the Vancouver Biennale, MACRO Museum Rome, Kadist SF, ACCA Melbourne, CCA Glasgow. He is the recipient of the Cove Park/Henry Moore Fellowship, Akademie Schloss Solitude Fellowship, the Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation Installation Art Grant, the Digital Earth Fellowship, and the first Human-Machine Fellowship organized by Junge Akademie/ Akademie Der Kunste.

PHOTO CAPTION: Sahej Rahal, Mythmachine

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