Morphogenic Angels
KEIKEN
With ‘Morphogenic Angels’, the transnational artist collective Keiken presents a constantly evolving worldbuilding project that creates speculative worlds of future living spaces and forms through film, simulation and role-play games.
Set 1000 years from now, in a completely different time and space, Morphogenic Angels explores a speculative future that transcends current political, social, financial and subjective realities. A future in which humans have acquired post-human abilities through the organic remodelling of their cells. These new beings are called angels and can live for hundreds of years and possess the consciousness of all species: that of their ancestors, that of nature, the physical, the extraterrestrial, the animal, the cellular and the cosmic. The artists’ collective KEIKEN takes the audience into this future post-capitalist world. In a controller game presented as an immersive game installation in HELLERAU, the audience follows the two characters Yaxu and Anamt’u’ul, who fall in love with each other but are also confronted with the consequences of their joint development in a metaverse.
The immersive game installation will be accompanied by a playthrough on 18 & 19 October 7pm with game designer and developer Mati Bratkowski and on 25 October at 7pm and 26 October at 12pm with artist and performer Sophie Mars.
Duration: ca. 1 h
Language: English
More information incl. trailer at:
Double Pack:
If you attend two events on the same evening, you will receive a 50 per cent discount on the cheaper of the two events. Can only be booked via the visitor centre.*
*This offer is only available for performances and times pre-selected by HELLERAU.
Keiken is an artist collective co-founded in 2015 by Tanya Cruz, Hana Omori and Isabel Ramos. They live in London and Berlin and have a mixed diasporic background (Mexican/Japanese/European/Jewish). The collective title Keiken is derived from the Japanese word for experience; lived experience is an idea that forms the core of their practice. Together they build and imagine speculative futures to simulate and test new structures and modes of existence. Tied to the idea of experience, Keiken explores the nature and future of consciousness in every facet of their practice. They do this through filmmaking, games, installation, extended reality (XR), blockchain and performance. Along the way, they also develop their own tools and technologies.
Keiken are winners of the first Chanel Next Prize and live at Somerset House in London. Their latest work, “Spirit Systems of Soft Knowing ༊-˚*”. Current and recently selected exhibitions include: Amos Rex, Helsinki (FL) (2024), 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (JP), KANAL-Centre Pompidou, Brussels (BE), Helsinki Biennial (FL), HAU Hebbel am Ufer , Berlin (DE) (2023), CO Berlin (DE); Wellcome Collection, London (UK); ARKO Art Centre, Seoul (KR); Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf (DE); Onassis, Athens (GR); Photographers Gallery, London (UK) (2022); 2. Thailand Biennale, Korat (TH); House of Electronic Arts HEK, Basel (CH); Francisco Carolinum, Linz (AU); 17. Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice (IT); Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo (JP) (2021); FACT, Liverpool (UK); Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt (DE); transmediale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt HKW, Berlin (DE) (2020); Institute of Contemporary Art ICA, London (UK); Jerwood Arts, London (UK) (2019).
Mati Bratkowski is an artist and game developer specialising in digital performance, virtual reality and immersive experiences. He has worked on the visual design of Madonna’s world tour and collaborated with artists such as the Keiken collective and Gabriel Massan. His work has been showcased globally, including in the UK, Germany, France, Japan, China and throughout Europe at venues like the 21st Century Museum in Japan, HAU Theatre in Berlin, and Somerset House in the UK.
Sophie Mars is a dance and performance artist and dance movement therapist. She is interested in participatory, sensory and immersive work exploring collective energy and idiosyncratic movement as new means of viewing and transforming space both physically and ontologically. Always interrogating the role of the body in today’s digital context, she works with new technologies to explore physical and virtual interstices, creating dreamlike worlds that are both familiar and surreal. She sees herself as a guide between worlds – a reality shifter. Much of her current work is linked to her project ‘Mindful practices for a future body – or how to reprogramme ourselves’, in which she explores new ways of being and relating to our bodies and environment, always focusing on an embodied relationship with technology.
Creative direction: Tanya Cruz, Hana Omori, Isabel Ramos (Keiken)
Programming, Game Design & Technical Direction: Limbo Tech
Visual Effects, Concept & Game Design: Mati Bratkowski
Animation/VFX: Carlos Minozzi
Music & Sound Design: wavesovspace
Environment Creation, Concept & Design: 00 Zhang
Motion Capture Movement: Sophie Mars
Voice Actor – Yaxu: Tanya Cruz, Voice Actor – Anamt’u’ul: Claire O’Leary, Voice Actor – Yaxu Ancestor 1: Helen Cruz, Voice Actor – Yaxu Ancestor 2: Chema Cruz, Voice Actor – Narrator: Elvera Avery
Additional Visual Effects: Clifford Sage
360° VR & CGI-Videobilder: George Jasper Stone
Virtual Reality Partner: HTC VIVE Arts
Studio Management: Hekátē Studios (Dominic Lauren, Vaso Papadopoulou, Aristea Rellou)
Technical Production: James Stringer
Project Production: Alexander Boyes
Production: Keiken / HAU Hebbel am Ufer
Production: Keiken / HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Funded as part of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Prototype support: C/O Berlin