special opening hours in September

The exhibition Space Invaders brings together works by three artists who deal in different ways with the question of exploring and taking over space. The title quotes the computer game “Space Invaders”, launched in the 1970s, a shoot ‚em up game with limited freedom of movement. In the gameplay of the 1978 classic, aliens approach from the air in a grid-like arrangement, which the players fight from the ground. Deliberately, Gallery 3AP’s exhibition titles cite works from the visual arts, architecture, music, literature or, in this case, interaction design, and refer to the work of contemporary artists. The named cult game can be found today as a „historically and culturally significant landmark“ (MOMA, New York) in numerous private and museum collections and is soon to be reissued in an AR variant for smartphones after more than 45 years. The group exhibition focuses on references to behavior that the game triggers, including aspects of behavioral design, but also visual ‘qualities’, especially simulations, illusion, and the connection between technology and entertainment. Through the exhibited works, however, the artists do not outline (utopian?) life dreams of a better world in which human encounters with unknown objectified life forms are less confrontational and destructive. The aim is to address the phenomena immanent to computer games from an artistic perspective and with artistic means, such as spatial observation and surveillance as well as interventions in visual habits or participation at the interface of physical and virtual living spaces.

Curated by Aileen Treusch, grapics by Mathias Bär, all images by Philipp Naujoks.