Tromarama's First Korean Solo Exhibition Explores Social Media's Infinite Loops at SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation
Tromarama, a collective based in Jakarta and Bandung, launched their inaugural solo exhibition in South Korea at the SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation in Seoul, titled "Ping Inside Noisy Giraffe." The exhibition showcased a range of works from 2006 to new installations set for 2025, arranged in a manner reminiscent of an Escher staircase. Notable pieces included Contract (2025), which critiques the extraction of value by social media, and Golden Ratio (2025), focusing on mechanisms of control. Additional installations such as Patgulipat (2022) and Banting Tulang (2024) examined labor, leisure, and recursive ideas from Douglas Hofstadter's 1979 work Gödel, Escher, Bach. Curator Stefanie Hessler highlighted the liberating potential of AI. Established in 2006, Tromarama critiques the evolution of social media from tools of emancipation to corporate instruments.
Key facts
- Tromarama's first solo exhibition in Korea was held at SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation in Seoul.
- The exhibition featured works from 2006 to 2025, including newly commissioned installations.
- The title "Ping Inside Noisy Giraffe" is a recursive acronym referencing computer signals.
- Contract (2025) included cow fur patterns, live X feeds with #force, and sounds from artists' muscles.
- Golden Ratio (2025) used monitors on tuning forks to address violence as control.
- Patgulipat (2022) involved an upside-down bouncy castle and construction helmets responding to X posts.
- Banting Tulang (2024) featured a net enclosure with performers prompted by #pleasure via haptic watches.
- The exhibition referenced Douglas Hofstadter's 1979 book Gödel, Escher, Bach and recursive concepts.
Entities
Artists
- Tromarama
- Douglas Hofstadter
- Stefanie Hessler
Institutions
- SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation
- Swiss Institute
Locations
- Seoul
- South Korea
- Jakarta
- Bandung
- Indonesia
- New York
- United States