Louis Morlæ: …Pop.!Crash/(LOON)

Louis Morlæ. …Pop.!Crash/(LOON) is a solo exhibition at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, presented on the occasion of Artissima 2026. The show marks the Italian debut of the Danish artist, winner of the 2025 illy Present Future Prize, an initiative organised by illycaffè and Artissima. Working across sculpture, industrial product design, video and music, Morlæ explores the relationship between the present and the future through a science-fiction-inspired imagery grounded in existing technologies. His works, developed using tools such as CAD software and 3D printing, take the form of humanoid figures, autonomous vehicles and imaginary safety devices.

The new installation draws inspiration from automotive crash-test environments. At its centre is a work from the SFB (Sidefall Bag) series, a group of inflatable sculptures made from airbag fabric that the artist describes as “dysfunctional safety devices”. These objects explore the tension between protection and failure, suggesting the limits of technological solutions designed to anticipate or prevent disaster.

The installation is accompanied by the video …Pop.!Crash/(LOON), created using artificial intelligence programmes and featuring a digital replica of the artist moving through a dystopian world. By employing large language models to generate nonsensical and pseudo-religious expressions, Morlæ reflects on the workings of AI and the ways technology shapes contemporary experience. Oscillating between irony and catastrophe, the exhibition presents the airbag as a symbol of the hope that it might still be possible to change course before impact.