How to Feel Real. Art, Technology and Us

What does it mean to live in an age in which technology defines every level of reality? Will our sense of self and our societies shatter into fragments – only to be pieced together again by markets or political campaigns? In a world where everything is personalised, what makes us truly individual? Do we still have a choice, or are we increasingly shaped by the codes that surround us?

At a time of deep uncertainty, marked by climate crisis, wars, and global instability, it is no longer clear what can help us navigate the future. For a long time, we believed that science and technology would eventually solve all our social problems. But the story is more complicated: scientific and industrial advances have also caused catastrophic accidents and lasting environmental damage.

Artists often embrace the creative potential of technology while also warning of its power to control, harm, and divide. Perhaps what makes us human is our ability to live with and reflect on these contradictions, while retaining hope and the capacity to dream without losing our critical awareness.

This exhibition explores some of the most challenging themes of our time: connection, automation, intelligence, body, and agency. It also addresses the fundamental questions of how to feel real – what it means to be alive, what the universe is, and where we fit within it. Rather than beginning with theory, the exhibition grew out of the artworks themselves. Some works come from the collection of ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, which includes numerous landmark works engaging with diverse forms of technology. Others come from the MO Museum collection, private estates and artists’ archives, alongside newly created works.

The exhibited works create a conversation across time, from early artistic responses to the arrival of computers and the internet to contemporary explorations of artificial intelligence and the growing digital mediation of our world – and ultimately, ourselves.

The exhibition title was inspired by the artist Robertas Narkus’s work How To Feel Real.

AATB, Gabrielė Adomaitytė, Kęstutis Andrašiūnas / Institutio Media, Deva Bartninkaitė, Michel Bret, Edmond Couchot, Bureau of Inverse Technology (BIT), Kate Crawford, Vladan Joler, Anna Dumitriu, Alex May, Jake Elwes, Harun Farocki, Mindaugas Gapševičius, Antanas Gerlikas, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Rusnė Ivanauskytė, Žilvinas Kempinas, Algimantas Kuras, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Bernd Lintermann, Peter Weibel, Anna Manankina, Martyna Marciniak, Rugilė Matuzaitė, Rūtė Merk, Robertas Narkus, Donatas Norušis, Nam June Paik, Pakui Hardware, Ignas Pavliukevičius, Anna Ridler, Juan Duarte Regino, Marija Teresė Rožanskaitė, Emilija Škarnulytė, Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau, Sputniko!, Rasa Šmite, Raitis Šmits, Universal Everything, Julijonas Urbonas, Mantas Valentukonis, Julia Vollmer, Miglė Vyčinaitė, Ztohoven Group

ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Lithuanian National Museum of Art, National Gallery Prague, Akvilė Šaulytė-Mikulskienė & Laurynas Mikulskis, Evaldas & Julija Rimšeliai, Darius Lebedzinskas

Alistair Hudson, Margit Rosen, Sarah Donata Schneider, Mantas Šimėnas, Gediminas Usevičius, VU FF Taikomosios elektrodinamikos ir telekomunikacijų institutas, Gregor Gaissmaier, Martin Häberle, Werner Hutzenlaub, Morris Schmidt, Jan Gerigk, Nikolaus Völzow, Marlies Peller, Morgan Stricot, Matthieu Vlaminck, Christian Haardt, Hartmut Jörg, Marius Burokas, Raimondas Čiegis, Gintautas Dzemyda, Valdas Ledzinskas, Vidas Regelskis, Mifodijus Sapagovas

Artwork featured on the exhibition’s poster
Universal Everything, Infinity, 2021, ZKM Collection / © Universal Everything