Decad is pleased to present 'Spiritual Reality' by the Berlin-based artist collective Lou Cantor. The exhibition comprises prints and sculptural elements that draw from the current, evolving state of human-robot relationships. This new body of work looks toward a not-so-distant post-automation future in which, it has been predicted, nearly one-third of jobs will become nonexistent as human workers are replaced by machines. Taking this prospective socioeconomic landscape as its point of departure, Lou Cantor’s current project considers the potential psychological trauma inflicted as intersubjective relationships undergo a fundamental shift in the face of advancing and increasingly ubiquitous human-AI relationships.

Illuminating the transactional nature of such exchanges, their images adopt the aesthetic of an advertising campaign – mirroring those of new technologies that promise a better quality of life and personal fulfillment, evoking connotations of spiritual enlightenment. The material, sculptural elements, meanwhile, envision bodily fragmentation, compositing and juxtaposing a fracturing of the whole with devices intended to measure and enhance its capabilities. This breaking down into elements for observation, to be measured and processed as data, reconstructs the reality of our experience and understanding of empathy and embodiment within the dynamic, changing architecture of intersubjective relations.

Over the course of the exhibition, there will be a parallel public programme featuring presentations by sociological and psychological researchers whose work is centered around the topic of intersubjective human-robot relationships.

Lou Cantor is a Berlin-based artist collective founded in 2011. Their work is primarily concerned with intersubjectivity and contemporary means and patterns of communication. They have previously exhibited at: 83 Pitt St, New York (2017); Transit Gallery, Prague (2016); 44th Salón Nacional de Artistas, Pereira, Colombia (2016); Artists Space, New York (2015); OSLO10, Basel (2015); the 7th Berlin Biennal, Berlin (2012); and New National Art, MoMA, Warsaw (2012). Their performance lecture entitled 'Time Farm' was presented at CUNY in 2015. Lou Cantor's work is currently on view at apexart, New York. Forthcoming exhibitions will take place at: Shoot the Lobster, New York; Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn; and the Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius.