Ayatgali Tuleubek & Michael Rahbek Rasmussen

Tulips are growing in this purpose-built ‘mausoleum’ – a glass and marble pavilion outside MUNCH. The so-called ‘tulip mania’ of the 1630s was one of the earliest examples of an economic bubble that burst. Tuleubek and Rasmussen’s installation functions as a greenhouse, with computers generating heat for the flowers to grow. Artificial intelligence is coupled with analogue tarot cards that together determine whether the artists should buy, sell or hold trading positions on the Oslo Stock Exchange, often involving companies with offices in Bjørvika. In this way, the artists point to both the speculative nature of financial trading and the enormous amounts of energy required for data processing. 

Location: Outside, in front of the museum building.

A commission for The Machine is Us.

Ayatgali Tuleubek (b. 1985 Kazakhstan, based in Oslo, Norway) works with technology in the broad sense. He explores this by examining the symbolic structures of technology, how they form our visual and sensory experiences and how they are integrated into culture and change human subjectivity. His practice is a continuous process of testing different strategies and presenting expressions through various tropes and artistic media.

Michael Rahbek Rasmussen (b. 1984 Denmark, based in Oslo, Norway) works mainly with installations, painting and sculpture. He is interested in how different infrastructures and systems can change, and the ripple effects they send out. He carries out this research using dynamic processes and perishable materials combined with industrial materials.