Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and the Launch of the Istanbul Biennial

The name Rafael Lozano-Hemmer still echoes through NYC—after all, it was only a few weeks ago that the Mexican-American tech artist’s Voice Tunnel turned the Park Avenue Tunnel into an interactive light and sound installation. His newest exhibition, a collateral event of the just-launched 13th Istanbul Biennial, brings the same crowdsourced, interactive excitement to Turkey in an exhibition of new work and old favorites, like his glowing LED Flatsun, which we’ve been hypnotized by since 2011. In a selection of works all rooted in human life (think beating hearts and vocal chords) look for Voice Array, Lozano-Hemmer’s blinking LED intercom that captures hundreds of voices and plays them back through flashing white lights; Pulse Index, which records fingertips and heartbeats and projects them as pulsating, floor-to-ceiling photographs; and Bifurcation, the Y-shaped branch, suspended from a thread, that hangs before an animated, “alien shadow” of an entire tree.

“Vicious Circular Breathing” is on view at Borusan Contemporary from September 14th through February 16th as a collateral event of the Istanbul Biennial.