In collaboration with programming partner Rhizome, Feral File announces two summer exhibitions exploring how we live, behave, and construct meaning within networked systems. The first exhibition in the series, “Console Spirituality,” curated by LAN Party (Vienna Kim & Benoît Palop), focuses on video games as powerful cultural engines of contemporary society. It highlights how games function as ritual spaces—arenas for play, identity formation, technostalgia, and speculative worldbuilding.

Featured artists Emi Kusano, Keiken & Gabriel Massan, John Provencher, and Sabato Visconti engage with game worlds, glitch existing systems, experiment with game logic, and present “divine visions” through game-driven worldbuilding. The exhibition is structured as a quest, progressing through four distinct levels: the underground maze “Dungeoneer,” drifting plains “Data Pilgrims,” fractured heavens “Angelcores & Heavenly Sprites,” and finally the transcendent realm “Omoiyari,” each deepening the viewer’s experience.

John Provencher invokes the internet meme “Can it run Doom?” to challenge traditional exhibition-making through game mechanics. Sabato Visconti utilizes retro-game glitches to queerly reinterpret technology and critique hegemonic systems. Emi Kusano’s AI-generated mythical pilgrims traverse virtual spaces, creating quiet, contemplative environments. Keiken and Gabriel Massan use delicate emotional expressions through avatars to explore how “compassion” might transcend socio-economic and political realities.

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The second exhibition, “Net Evil,” curated by Mackenzie Davenport, opens August 26. It reimagines the seven deadly sins for the digital age, acknowledging the internet’s transformative power on connection, creation, and communication, while simultaneously amplifying ancient desires and impulses.

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These two exhibitions hosted by Feral File form part of their summer exhibition series, organized in collaboration with programming partner Rhizome. Known for promoting net-born art and culture, Rhizome continues to offer programs showcasing a wide array of experimental digital expressions.