Remembered, Not Real – Schaufenster junge Kunst

A simple line of code, the sound of a system notification, the ending of a game, the endless, almost forgotten collection of open tabs — some memories belong to no specific place. They emerge somewhere between everyday life and simulation, between physical surroundings and virtual experience. Remembered, Not Real approaches these experiences as part of a present in which digital cultures have long shaped our perception, relationships, and notions of reality. The exhibition brings together artistic positions from the class of Olia Lialina at the Merz Academy that trace the marks, forms, and narratives of the digital, transforming them into active spaces of experiences and possibilities.

The exhibited works open up perspectives on the history and today of the “digital”: they lead through worlds driven by repetition and optimization, turn the browser into a stage, reconstruct memories from fragments, examine digital economies, and render the elementary building blocks of the web newly tangible. In doing so, material translations of digital processes are created, such as the modification of a game console or a physical “Submit” button that is detached from its interface. Between play, reflection, and critique, a panorama of the digital unfolds as an open process: a multilayered medium in constant transformation, shaped as much by its beginnings as by the ongoing shifts of the present.

Exhibition opening: Saturday, June 27, 2025, 6 p.m.

The exhibitions in the young art display windows are supported by the Helmut Fischer Foundation