28 march 2025, Flor Linckens
Hybrid worlds at Art Rotterdam: from floral data visions to game fights in the white cube
The world is no longer easily defined. At Art Rotterdam (28–30 March at Rotterdam Ahoy), artists move fluidly between digital technology, nature, gaming culture and classical painting. Their work reveals that hybrid worlds — where disciplines, materials and realities blend into one another — are not the exception but the norm. Five works stand out for the way they embody these fusions, resonating both visually and conceptually.
Game over? The artist versus the art world
In the installation "ULTIMATE MINGLE" (Albert Contemporary) Danish artist Line Finderup Jensen combines painting, sculpture and a self-developed video game into a layered whole where the boundary between digital and physical dissolves. At the heart of the work lies a game in which, Street Fighter-style, the player must battle gallerists, curators and collectors. The installation is set in an art fair environment, complete with booths, counter attacks and flashing life bars, inviting visitors to literally fight for visibility and recognition. The game takes the form of a sculptural object and is closely connected to surrounding paintings that portray the backstories of the characters. In doing so, Finderup reminds us that behind every fighter, artist or gallerist, there is a person. By placing the fate of her digital alter ego in the player’s hands, she offers insight into the vulnerable and often invisible position of the artist within the art system. "ULTIMATE MINGLE" shows how the digital and the analogue are not separate realms but can reinforce one another within a hybrid reality where conflict and empathy coexist.
Pavel Grosu: digital collage as painterly memory
Romanian artist Pavel Grosu (Sector 1 Gallery) begins with digital collages which he then translates into paintings. His process involves manipulating found imagery — often personal snapshots, everyday objects and architectural details — by cutting, restructuring and rescaling them. He then turns this digital material into a thoroughly analogue artwork by painting it. Grosu’s practice explores themes such as dream, illusion and memory, resulting in enigmatic paintings that leave the viewer unsure how much is rooted in reality.
Preta Wolzak: elephants in the control room
In this hand-embroidered piece by Preta Wolzak (Rademakers Gallery), an elephant operates a control room — is it a nuclear power plant? What begins as an absurd image gradually becomes a critical reflection on technological power, bureaucracy and ecological fragility. The colourful, seemingly naive style may initially resemble a children’s drawing, yet the depth lies in the details: an overload of switches and measuring devices confronts viewers with the incomprehensibility of modern infrastructures.
Daan Samson: blender in the woods
In his "Prosperity Biotopes", Daan Samson (Rosie’s) shows how our longing for unspoiled nature clashes with our pursuit of progress and convenience. This tension is at the core of his work, where everyday devices such as mini projectors and robotic vacuum cleaners appear in carefully reconstructed natural environments. At Art Rotterdam 2025, Samson presents four new drawings at Rosie’s, exploring the role of fire in the ecosystems of Southwest Australia, where plants use fire as a driver of renewal. In Samson’s world, humans are also part of that ecosystem: a kitchen blender belongs just as much as an animal or a plant. His work asks whether our urge to create and consume is truly unnatural.
Floral data visions between nature and software
In the series "Phytosynthesis", Stefano Caimi (The Flat – Massimo Carasi) explores how plants and digital technology might meet without losing their essence. Using photogrammetry, flowers are scanned and a custom-built algorithm transforms millions of data points into layered, ethereal images. Caimi does not treat technology as an end in itself but as a material — like clay or paint — that only gains meaning through knowledge and research. His floral compositions balance between visibility and dissolution, revealing the structure of the plant as well as the invisible connections between cells and their surroundings.
View the full catalogue for Art Rotterdam here and get your tickets here.
