Pierre Huyghe's Liminal Exhibition at Punta della Dogana Explores Human Crisis and Non-Human Possibilities

Pierre Huyghe's exhibition 'Liminal' at Punta della Dogana in Venice, curated with Anne Stenne, presents a living, evolving organism of artworks that respond to environmental stimuli via AI. The show challenges human perception through darkness, sensor-driven installations, and non-human agents. Key works include 'Camata' (AI-edited video of machines performing ritual on a human skeleton in Atacama Desert), 'Offspring' (color/sound-altering vapor installation), 'Circadian Dilemma (El Dia del Ojo)' (aquariums with blind and sighted Astyanax Mexicanus fish), 'Idiom' (performers with luminescent masks generating invented language), 'Liminal' (video of a nude woman with a hollow face in a lunar landscape), 'Zoodram 6' (hermit crab in Brâncuși's Sleeping Muse replica), and 'Human Mask' (monkey in human mask in Fukushima restaurant). The exhibition juxtaposes a basalt cast of a pregnant belly with a human cancer cell culture, whose reproduction rates generate a morphing video. 'De-extinction' (2014) shows prehistoric insects copulating in amber. Huyghe's practice engages posthumanist thought, referencing Donna Haraway, Rosi Braidotti, Nick Bostrom, Federico Campagna, and Reza Negarestani, but prioritizes poetic and speculative narrative over technology. The show runs at Punta della Dogana, Venice.