Synthetic Corpo-Reality: A Virtual Exhibition on Digital Bodies at MEET Milano

The exhibition Synthetic Corpo-Reality, curated by Julie Walsh for MEET International Center for Digital Culture in Milan, is hosted entirely within the 3D virtual environment of Mozilla Hubs. It features eleven works by international artists exploring digital representations of the human body, a theme amplified by the pandemic's shift to Zoom and social media. Artists include Sophie Kahn, whose The Divers VI presents fragmented 3D scans of Butō dancers as 'monuments to loss'; Carla Gannis, Claudia Hart, and Auriea Harvey. Tamiko Thiel's Lend Me Your Face! uses deepfake technology to map speeches onto unknown faces. Rebecca Allen shows early 1980s videos Figure Crawling and Figure Waiting, evoking Francis Bacon. Martina Menegon's all alone together features bacchic 3D scans of her own body. The exhibition is free and accessible online until April 25, 2021. Walsh calls it a historic event, highlighting pioneering digital artists and the institutional backing of MEET. Most participating artists are women, challenging preconceptions about digital art. The show is structured like an onion: an initial museum-like space with teleportation into artists' worlds.