Softimag, On the Threshold of the Visible and the Simulated

Perspective by Softimage (Katja Breder, Viola Del Monte, Hannes Hochmuth, Lara Jordan, Luka Keresman, Fruzsina Kiss, Christopher Krause, Anton Kruse, Gabriela Lesmes López, Leo Schilz, Delphine Wigger, William Ye), curated by Volo Bevza, at Cank, Berlin, 27–29 June 2025.

Stepping into Softimage felt like entering, do you know that moment?, an image still loading: nothing fully formed yet, which made everything seem possible. We found ourselves wondering, again and again as we moved through the show, what remains of an artwork when its edges dissolve, when the digital becomes flesh and the analog, a simulation. “Perspective,” an intentional title, functions more like a prism than a thesis: what we see is already layered, processed, interfered with. A slanting beam of light cast across a synthetic material reminded us of a Photoshop window made real. We weren’t looking for answers, but for the way these works frame their questions.

The exhibition design at CANK was restrained and unsentimental, welcoming us like an archive of ongoing experiments. Neutral, almost clinical lighting suspended the works in a perfect in-betweenness, each piece vibrating between presence and simulation. The flow of visitors was steady but never intrusive: everyone seemed to pause in quiet attention, as if in front of a machine whispering.

The layout followed a non-linear visual score: moments of intensity, conceptual knots rather than orientation points. Delphine Wigger’s works, which engage with Hito Steyerl’s concept of the “poor image,” appeared like blurred apparitions: degraded, exhausted visuals that find strength precisely in their fragility. A few steps away, Lara Jordan’s screenshots assembled a mental atlas where each click was a visual rupture. The paintings by Christopher Krause and Leo Schilz, based on photo templates, don’t aim for illusion but reinterpretation: tactile echoes of digital memory.

In the canvases of Viola Del Monte and Luka Keresman, impossible bodies, AI-generated, are rendered with startling humanity. These are not mere images: they are interfaces, thresholds between us and another kind of presence. Katja Breder and Anton Kruse work with photogrammetric objects, seemingly giving weight to what typically lives only onscreen: their sculptures look like fragments from a broken render. Gabriela Lesmes López deals in operative images: not representational, but active, images that challenge our act of seeing. Fruzsina Kiss, Hannes Hochmuth, and William Ye translate Photoshop compositions into paintings that retain digital breath: layers, windows, and cursors melt into pigment, creating a hypnotic tension.

Technically, the exhibition is a symphony of hybridities. Surfaces are handled with near-surgical care: hard supports alternate with soft canvas, 3D prints that evoke bodies more than machines, resin that traps light like amber-encased insects. Gestural presence is there, but always aware of its post-media condition. There’s no nostalgia here, only productive friction. The techniques contaminate one another without hierarchy, dissolving any naïve opposition between digital and analog. It’s in this precise point of tension that the work finds its most intense resonance.

As we left the space, one image lingered: a slightly tilted panel where a digital shadow merged with a neon reflection. A fleeting moment, almost a visual glitch. Softimage isn’t just an exhibition, it’s a time-place where images cease to illustrate and begin to act. They don’t ask to be understood, but to be experienced. We invite you to cross that threshold and let them pass through you: you’ll find images that think, surfaces that feel, and maybe even a reflection of yourself.”