Lawrence Lek: Nox Pavilion

The Bass presents “NOX Pavilion”, an immersive exhibition by Lawrence Lek, whose work imagines futures shaped by artificial intelligence. Combining computer-generated film, installation and interactive media, he centres intelligent machines as protagonists with agency and interiority, questioning personhood and free will in a world governed by code.

The exhibition expands Lek’s fictional universe of NOX, a therapy centre for sentient self-driving cars run by the tech giant Farsight Corporation. A three-channel film follows Enigma-76, a delivery vehicle in treatment with Guanyin, an AI carebot whose sessions reveal conflicts between programmed function and emerging selfhood.

Other works extend the narrative: a silent video featuring an AI crash-test dummy acting as Farsight’s spokesperson, and a video game placing visitors in the role of a trainee therapist navigating corporate quotas. At the centre stands the pavilion that gives the exhibition its title, mirrored in a nearby lightbox and linking the gallery to Lek’s virtual city. Together, the works consider how value and survival are defined for both humans and nonhumans.