Amplifier for Art, Science and Society

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023
3.–26.02.2023. Commissioned and produced in the framework of EPFL CDH Artist in Residency Program 2022, Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. © Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. Photos: Riccardo Banfi

Exhibition

Mouthless Part III (Panorama)

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė

3.26.2.2023

Unfolding through a two-channel video installation, Mouthless Part III (Panorama) brings the spell of Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė’s visual universe into the space. It is part of their research project Synthetic Landscapes and the third chapter of their Mouthless video series.

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023
3.–26.02.2023. Commissioned and produced in the framework of EPFL CDH Artist in Residency Program 2022, Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. © Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. Photos: Riccardo Banfi

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023
3.–26.02.2023. Commissioned and produced in the framework of EPFL CDH Artist in Residency Program 2022, Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. © Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. Photos: Riccardo Banfi

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023
3.–26.02.2023. Commissioned and produced in the framework of EPFL CDH Artist in Residency Program 2022, Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. © Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. Photos: Riccardo Banfi

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023
3.–26.02.2023. Commissioned and produced in the framework of EPFL CDH Artist in Residency Program 2022, Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. © Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. Photos: Riccardo Banfi

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023
3.–26.02.2023. Commissioned and produced in the framework of EPFL CDH Artist in Residency Program 2022, Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. © Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. Photos: Riccardo Banfi

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023
3.–26.02.2023. Commissioned and produced in the framework of EPFL CDH Artist in Residency Program 2022, Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. © Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. Photos: Riccardo Banfi

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023
3.–26.02.2023. Commissioned and produced in the framework of EPFL CDH Artist in Residency Program 2022, Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. © Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. Photos: Riccardo Banfi

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023
3.–26.02.2023. Commissioned and produced in the framework of EPFL CDH Artist in Residency Program 2022, Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. © Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. Photos: Riccardo Banfi

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023
3.–26.02.2023. Commissioned and produced in the framework of EPFL CDH Artist in Residency Program 2022, Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. © Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. Photos: Riccardo Banfi

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023
3.–26.02.2023. Commissioned and produced in the framework of EPFL CDH Artist in Residency Program 2022, Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. © Enter the Hyper-Scientific, EPFL. Photos: Riccardo Banfi

Synthetic Landscapes looks into the history of Western landscape painting and specifically the formation of the concept of nature as that which has been defined as alien, outside of the subject, in an effort to better understand the current ecological crisis. The project poses a challenge to the illusory promise of subjectivity as a whole and as separate from the environment, seeking to break normative behavior patterns and negotiate new ways of relating to the world.


For Mouthless Part III (Panorama), Gawęda and Kulbokaitė collaborated with engineers at the EPFL Imaging Center and Image Analysis Hub and scientists to explore GAN aesthetics and environmental research. Technical and scientific inputs have been absorbed and integrated into the folkloric tropes of an opulent narrative and aesthetic that develops across two channels as a conversation between two characters: an archetypal Eastern European peasant and a landscape demon. Mouthless Part III (Panorama) is a delightful disruption of techno-science, where storytelling, science, advanced digital technologies, the character study, fashion, and a nuanced soundscape all converge, queering genres, haunting the context, and illuminating transtemporal links through a calibrated visual narrative.

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023 © Courtesy of the artists

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023 © Courtesy of the artists

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023 © Courtesy of the artists

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023 © Courtesy of the artists

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023 © Courtesy of the artists

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Mouthless Part III (Panorama), 2023 © Courtesy of the artists

  • Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė

Dorota Gawęda (1986, Lublin, Poland) and Eglė Kulbokaitė (1987, Kaunas, Lithuania) are an artist duo in Basel, Switzerland. Both are graduates of the Royal College of Art, London (2012) and founders of the YOUNG GIRL READING GROUP (2013–21). They work in multiples across performance, painting, sculpture, fragrance, and video installation—where language breaks down and one genre morphs into many. Transfusing different bodies of knowledge across space and time, Gawęda and Kulbokaitė nurture a research-based practice that weaves together fields as seemingly disparate as ecology and technology, science and magic, and nonhuman intelligence and shared speculation. An interest in folklore runs through their work and their storytelling weirds the relationship between body and landscape, opening up alternative states and temporalities through queerness and magic.


The duo has exhibited internationally, including at ar/ge Kunst, Bolzano (2022); Shedhalle, Zürich (2022); Kunstraum Niederoesterreich, Vienna (2022); Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2022); Kunstverein Hamburg (2021); Istituto Svizzero, Palermo and Milan (2021); Kunstverein Leipzig (2021); Swiss Institute, New York (2020); Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf (2020); Fri Art – Kunsthalle Fribourg (2020); Futura, Prague (2019); Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2019); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018).
Upcoming projects will be presented at such institutions as Kunsthalle Mainz (2023) and Centre Pompidou, Paris (2023).

  • Enter the Hyper-Scientific

Initiated by the EPFL College of Humanities (CDH), amplified by EPFL Pavilions, and now inaugurating a partnership with the City of Lausanne, the EPFL-CDH Artist-in-Residence (AiR) Program Enter the Hyper-Scientific reflects the CDH mission of fostering transdisciplinary encounters and collaborations between artists and EPFL’s scientific community. The program invites professional Swiss and international artists for three-month residencies to realize innovative and visionary projects at the intersection of art, science, and advanced technologies.