Rafael Lozano-Hemmer has gained international recognition in recent decades for his large-scale, participatory installations that often incorporate both technology and the architecture of public space. On 2 October 2021, the exhibition Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence opens at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Until 6 March 2022, it will offer a new perspective on Lozano-Hemmer's »anti-monuments« and their poetic and political dimensions. The selected works illuminate the ephemeral and unstable relationship between physical presence and the natural as well as technological spaces we inhabit. Realised on a microscopic and macroscopic scale, they also engage with our sense of play and agency. The exhibition brings together recent sculptural and performative installations, with media artist Lozano-Hemmer primarily using the materials and means of air, water, music, voices, text and light.
Born in Mexico City in 1967, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a Mexican-Canadian electronic artist best known for his theatrical, interactive installations in public spaces in Europe, Asia and America. His art is characterised by a frequent, special interaction between the work and the viewers - for example, he measures their heart rates, monitors their faces and even circulates their breath. Meanwhile, he explores themes of forced cohabitation, power imbalances and contemporary techniques of surveillance and control. Humanity and fears are at the centre of his art.
