New Rituals (for the End of the World)

New Rituals [for the End of the World] at HEK (House of Electronic Arts) examines emerging social strategies for navigating a challenging global reality, focusing on new ritual practices forming at the intersection of technology and spirituality. Bringing together an international group of artists, the presentation features works that imagine new rituals as coping mechanisms in response to a pervasive sense of global collapse. The artists investigate what symbolic actions might offer unity and what new mythologies could assist in surviving contemporary crises.

The exhibition explores both explicit and implicit forms of contemporary rituals. The investigations address the religious elevation of artificial intelligence in Silicon Valley and analyze how everyday habits on social platforms can evolve into dogmatic dependencies within the competitive attention economy. Works also address the intimate connection between the human body and personal devices, offering cleansing rituals against technofascist energies alongside playful methods for maintaining a body-mind connection.