SPARK is a collaborative platform located in Malmö, Sweden with the purpose of strengthening the interface between architecture, art, research, and societal advancement through exhibitions and lectures. The aim is to promote artistic processes in architecture and urban development by activating intersections between art, architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture.
SPARK aims at exhibiting works that provokes critical discourse in current city building through explorative, experimental, trans- and interdisciplinary practices. SPARK collaborates with Lund University Department of Architectrue and the Built Environment, Architects Sweden Skåne, and Molekyl Gallery.
Current exhibition
Jean Jacques Balzac
Postcards
08.11 - 08.12.2024
Opening November 8, 17-20
Båstadsgatan 4
SPARK proudly presents the first solo exhibition with Paris-based architect and AI artist Jean Jacques Balzac.
The images created by Jean Jacques Balzac are like a visual essay on a possible post-human condition; mysterious and hypnotic, colored by the characteristic ghostly haziness of AI-generated images. The richness of variations on these themes that he creates within his artistic practice is interesting in relation to our contemporary era, where aesthetics of doom and desolation are part of our daily image consumption.
"The closer an image gets to reality, the more a spectator can relate to what they see. What is essential is to keep at least one aesthetic element out of sync and in opposition to all the others, stretching or deforming it to the point by which the structure of its reality starts breaking.”
Jean Jacques Balzac is an alias created as an outlet for various experiment into generative AI. As he started getting interesting results using Midjourney, the instagram feed of JJB became the showcase of a relentless exploration into the fertile territory of the artificially directed reconfiguration of our collective image databases.
In his exhibition at SPARK, he will present new experiments into moving image as well as a continuous flow of postcards base selected from the instagram feed. The images will be printed on site in the gallery and the visitors will be asked to write their own reflections of what they perceive. This way, the images will again be turned into text, completing the circle which started as a prompt dialogue between man and machine.
instagram.com/jeanjacquesbalzac
minimalcollective.digital/editorial/deconstructing-the-ephemeral-in-architecture
On November 7th, SPARK will co-host a talk about Generative AI as a creative and critical tool with invited guests speakers: Artist David Selander, architect Peter Gustafson (TAOOD) and designer Ebba Lindgren.
