展览预告|迈克尔·耐贾尔:动态平衡

迈克尔·耐贾尔（1966 年生于德国）是一位享誉国际的艺术家、探险家以及未来的宇航员。他的跨学科创作涵盖摄影、影像、数字图像、雕塑与写作。他以在艺术、科学与技术的交汇处展开实践而著称，以复杂而批判性的方式回应并探讨正在急速重塑 21 世纪早期的科技发展。

随着新兴技术日益深刻地影响我们生活的各个层面——往往伴随着模棱两可的后果——耐贾尔的作品探索并可视化由这些进步所塑造的未来社会结构。他的艺术不仅质询前沿科技的影响，也反映了一个正经历深刻转型的世界的可能性。

1993 年，耐贾尔毕业于柏林 Bildo 新媒体艺术学院——一所 1987 年创立的实验性私立艺术学院。该学院强调摄影、影像与计算机技术作为艺术表达的形式，其哲学框架深受维勒姆·弗卢瑟（Vilém Flusser）、让·鲍德里亚（Jean Baudrillard）和保罗·维里里奥（Paul Virilio）等革命性思想家的影响。

在近三十年的职业生涯中，耐贾尔扩展了摄影媒介的边界，通过不断重构时间与空间来探索技术图像的潜能，并将现实与模拟之间的关系置于其图像建构的核心。他的大幅摄影作品与沉浸式影像常由各种图像与数据源拼接成复杂的数字拼贴而成，以其迷人的美学与深刻的观念展现出前瞻性的力量。他创造的图像——其中一些已具标志性——思考超越肉眼所见。他的总体创作模糊了时间性与空间性的界限，将历史参照、当下的科技发展与未来的投射相结合，营造出新的、暧昧的现实。

耐贾尔的作品以系列形式呈现，探讨的主题包括：通过愈加密集的信息网络转型的全球特大城市；通过生物基因干预而改变的人体；由智能算法驱动的金融市场虚拟化；最新太空科技对人类未来的影响；以及在气候变化与地球工程背景下的地球未来。他的多维度实践常涉及与科学家、研究人员和工程师的跨学科合作。

表演性已成为耐贾尔创作过程的核心部分。数十年来，他在全球展开旅行与探险，许多项目源于在偏远、边界地带、常常难以抵达的地点进行的实地考察。他攀登七千米高峰、攀爬摩天大楼、跋涉活火山、横跨冰川、进入冰洞、穿越沙漠，并接受强化的宇航员训练——目标是成为首位进入太空的艺术家。为完成作品，耐贾尔常将身体置于极端环境中，在艰险的自然或技术条件下不断突破身心的极限。

在过去 30 年中，耐贾尔的作品在全球诸多重要机构举办过个展与群展，包括：柏林艺术学院、科隆路德维希博物馆、汉堡美术馆、汉堡当代艺术馆、卡尔斯鲁厄 ZKM 艺术与媒体中心、赫尔福德 Marta 美术馆、奥尔登堡 Edith-Russ 媒体艺术馆、慕尼黑艺术馆、林茨电子艺术中心、沃尔夫斯堡艺术馆、伦敦萨奇画廊、伦敦科学博物馆、日内瓦当代影像中心、巴塞罗那胡安·米罗基金会、西班牙拉·卡伊沙基金会（马德里、巴塞罗那、塞维利亚）、马拉加当代艺术中心、帕尔马·德·马略卡 Es Baluard 博物馆、萨拉曼卡 DA2 艺术中心、斯德哥尔摩 / 塔林 / 上海 Fotografiska、贝尔格莱德当代艺术博物馆、坦佩雷美术馆、阿姆斯特丹新媒体艺术学院、海牙 GEM 当代艺术博物馆、米兰 FORMA 摄影中心、图森艺术博物馆、Ballroom Marfa、华盛顿史密森国家航空航天博物馆、奥克兰美术馆、墨尔本维多利亚国家美术馆、台北国立科学博物馆、台北 Jut 美术馆、北京中央美术学院美术馆、北京尤伦斯当代艺术中心、杭州浙江美术馆、南京四方美术馆、新加坡艺术科学博物馆、首尔国立现代与当代美术馆，以及哈瓦那双年展、莫斯科国际双年展、威尼斯建筑双年展等。

耐贾尔的作品被全球多家博物馆、企业与私人收藏。关于他创作的国际出版物亦不胜枚举。

Michael Najjar, (b.1966, Germany) is an internationally renowned artist, explorer, and future astronaut. His multidisciplinary work spans photography, video, digital imaging, sculpture, and writing. He is known for working closely at the intersection of art, science, and technology, engaging in complex and critical ways with the rapid technological developments that are shaping and radically transforming the early 21st century.

As recent innovations increasingly and profoundly influence various dimensions of our lives—often with ambivalent consequences—Najjar’s work explores and visualizes potential future social structures shaped by these advancements. His art not only interrogates the impact of cutting-edge technologies but also reflects on the possibilities of a world undergoing profound transformation.

In 1993, Najjar graduated from the Berlin Bildo Academy of New Media Arts, an experimental private art college founded in 1987. The institution placed a strong emphasis on photography, video, and computer technology as forms of artistic expression. The philosophical framework was influenced by revolutionary and visionary thinkers such as Vilém Flusser, Jean Baudrillard, and Paul Virilio.

In a career spanning almost three decades, Najjar has expanded the boundaries of the medium of photography, exploring the potential of the technical image by subjecting it to a constant reconstruction of time and space, and placing the relationship between reality and simulation at the center of his image constructions. His large-format photographic works and immersive videos are generated from a highly complex digital collage of various image and data sources, and unfold their visionary power through both their captivating aesthetics and conceptual profoundness. Najjar creates pictures—some of which have attained iconic status—that think beyond what the eye can see. His comprehensive oeuvre blurs the line between temporalities and spacialities, combining historical references, current technological developments and futuristic projections to create new, ambiguous realities.

Najjar’s works are grouped in thematic series that explore topics such as the transformation of global megacities through increasingly dense information networks, the alteration of the human body via biogenetic interventions, the virtualization of financial markets driven by intelligent algorithms, the impact of the latest space technologies on our future in space, and our planetary future amid climate change and geoengineering. Najjar’s multidimensional practice often involves cross-disciplinary collaborations with scientists, researchers, and engineers.

The performative aspect has become a fundamental part of Najjar’s artistic process. For decades, he has embarked on journeys and expeditions across the globe, with many of his projects originating from fieldwork in remote, liminal, and often difficult-to-access locations. He has climbed seven-thousand-meter peaks, scaled skyscrapers, trekked active volcanoes, crossed glaciers, descended into ice caves, traversed deserts, and undergone intensive astronaut training—with the aim of becoming the first artist to travel into space. To create his images, Najjar exposes his body to extreme conditions, pushing his mental and physical limits within challenging natural or technological environments.

Over the past 30 years, Najjar‘s work has been featured worldwide in numerous solo and group exhibitions at prestigious institutions, including Academy of Arts, Berlin; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Hamburger Kunsthalle – Gallery of Contemporary Art, Hamburg; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe; Marta Museum, Herford; Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art, Oldenburg; Kunsthalle München, Munich; Ars Electronica Center, Linz; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; Saatchi Gallery, London; Science Museum, London; Centre pour l'image contemporaine, Geneva; Joan Miró Foundation, Barcelona; Fundación La Caixa, Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla; Centro de Arte Contemporaneo, Málaga; Museo Es Baluard, Palma de Mallorca; Museo DA2 Domus Artium 2002, Salamanca; Fotografiska, Stockholm, Tallinn, Shanghai; Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; Tampere Art Museum; New Media Art Institute, Amsterdam; GEM Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hague; FORMA International Centre for Photography, Milan; Tuscon Museum of Art, Tucson; Ballroom Marfa; Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; National Museum of Science, Taipei; Jut Art Museum, Taipei; Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing; Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; ZheJiang Art Museum, Hangzhou; Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing; ArtScience Museum, Singapore; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; 9th Havana Biennale; 7th International Moscow Biennale; 10th Venice Architecture Biennale.

Najjar’s works are held in museum, corporate, and private collections around the world. Numerous international publications have been dedicated to his work.

END