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What will Europe look like in a year? In five years? In ten? In a world where algorithms dictate the rhythm of life, and politics balance between panic and hope, art becomes our inner beacon — bold, alive, provocative. It pushes us forward and makes us reflect on how technology influences society. You could say it works as the nervous system of an entire society.

And at the forefront — not corporations, not institutions, but independent artists. We are used to thinking that the future is built by engineers. But if you look closer: they teach us to see technology differently — with irony, with criticism, with utopian boldness,

Art and technology can be allies, not adversaries. It doesn’t just decorate, but creates new forms of interaction, new ways of seeing the world.

Today, this boldness is born where the human body meets virtual worlds. Anan Fries and Malu Peeters present POSTHUMAN WOMBS — 28 minutes of VR immersion, where pregnancy becomes technology, and bodies — a field of experimentation. There are no binary genders here: anyone can be pregnant. 3D characters, virtual animation, and Malu Peeters’ sound create a sense of presence, turning the viewer into a participant in utopia. The work was presented at the exhibition Unleashed Utopias in Berlin (2023) and was recognized for its innovation and emotional depth.

If for Anan the body becomes the arena of the future, for SunJeong Hwang the scale shifts — from a human to entire ecosystems. She merges poetry, AI, and generative code, creating her “Planetary Weaving”, where art works like a forest: a system in which humans, machines, and nature coexist. Her works are not just images — they are models of the future that can be felt and understood with the whole body.

But art changes not only the perception of the body or the planet — it reshapes matter itself.
Matthew Gardiner invented “oribotics”: paper comes alive, folding and moving under the control of mechanics and code. At the Ars Electronica lab, he shows that through form and material, new knowledge is born. The paper in his hands is no longer just paper, but a mini-laboratory of the future, which can be seen in real life.

And if Gardiner experiments with form and movement, Thomas Kvam and Frode Oldereid use technology as a language of critique. Their Requiem for an Exit is a four-meter-high robotic figure, a combination of human and machine. Its hyperrealistic face speaks in a monotonous, liturgical voice about violence, genocide, and our responsibility for history. The work turns technology into an instrument of reflection: we see how control and power shape society, while at the same time questioning the future. It is no coincidence that this installation received the “Golden Nica” at Ars Electronica 2025.

After politics and memory, it’s time to look at how technology transforms our “self.”
Carrie Chen — an artist from Los Angeles with roots in Laos and China — creates digital doubles of herself and her subjects, placing them in different timelines. In her CGI portraits, generations, cultures, and histories coexist. You look — and catch yourself thinking: your Instagram avatar is also part of a larger history. This is art about hybridity, and about how the past and future exist simultaneously.

And Ines Alpha offers another experiment — light and radical at the same time. The French artist creates 3D filters for Instagram and Snapchat, acid and surreal, collaborating with Prada and Clarins. Her manifesto is simple: beauty is not a dictate of fashion, but play and freedom. Her digital makeup is a multimedia utopia that you want to try on yourself.

The Europe of the future is born not in corporate offices, but in the workshops and studios of independent artists. They remind us: technology is not only control, but also the possibility to dream, to argue, and to rebuild society anew.

And which scenario is closer to you — technology for the market, or technology for culture and people?

Anan Fries & Malu Peeters – POSTHUMAN WOMBS –Unleashed Utopias, Berlin, 2023

SunJeong Hwang – Planetary Weaving – Transmediale, Berlin

Matthew Gardiner – Oribotics – Ars Electronica Futurelab, Linz

Thomas Kvam & Frode Oldereid – Requiem for an Exit – Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2025

Carrie Chen – Digital Portraits – Primavera 春, CIRCA DTLA, Los Angeles, 2024

Ines Alpha – 3D Filters & Digital Makeup – Virtual Beauty, Paris

Before there is gold, there is a vision. Not a trend. Not a moodboard. But a flash — a childhood echo, a scent in the air, the curve of a branch, the silence of marble.

Where does fashion speak more softly, yet closer to people? Six local movements from across Europe, where craft, meaning, and form create a personal style.

Tired of sameness? Let’s look where stories live — in pieces made by hands, not machines. Choosing independent artists means wearing meaning.