Onassis ONX presents “Group Hug,” a groundbreaking exhibition of large-scale video game installations in New York

September 26 to October 20, 2024, New York

Onassis ONX, in partnership with Water Street Projects, is excited to present “Group Hug,” a landmark exhibition featuring large-scale, site-specific video game installations. Curated by Onassis ONX in collaboration with curator Julia Kaganskiy, Serpentine Arts Technologies, and Rhizome, this innovative exhibition invites visitors to play together and immerse themselves in the sensorial worlds of each game through a unique blend of sight, sound, and touch.

Concept art for Feral Metaverse by Connor Willumsen

“Group Hug” is set to redefine the gaming experience by focusing on radical collaboration, where players must work together to navigate and survive unfamiliar environments, challenging the conventions of individualistic gameplay.

The exhibition promotes a fresh approach to game design and curation, bringing together diverse creative perspectives from three dynamic artists and an international curatorial team. “Group Hug” emphasizes the transformative power of cooperative play, encouraging new ways of communication and teamwork among participants. In addition to the installations, the exhibition will feature a library curated by Onassis ONX and a series of public events that will activate the space through conversation and play.

Featuring Works:
“Feral Metaverse” by Theo Triantafyllidis
“THE LACK: I KNEW YOUR VOICE BEFORE YOU SPOKE” by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley
“The Endless Forest” by Tale of Tales (Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn)

Still from “Feral Metaverse” courtesy of Theo Triantafyllidis

“Feral Metaverse” by Theo Triantafyllidis

In “Feral Metaverse,” players are dropped defenseless into a disorienting wasteland and must learn to rely on one another to survive. In defiance of traditional game tropes and tech industry’s prioritization of productivity, Triantafyllidis envisioned a “feralized” world, which favors disinhibition and cooperation between users, leading them to experience the joy of synchronicity and communication. Featuring a site-specific gaming rig that takes the shape of a medieval catapult, the installation prompts players to become part of the great machine and work together to discover the rules of the game. “Feral Metaverse” is curated for Group Hug by Julia Kaganskiy.

About the artist

Theo Triantafyllidis

Still from “THE LACK: I KNEW YOUR VOICE BEFORE YOU SPOKE” courtesy of Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley

“THE LACK: I KNEW YOUR VOICE BEFORE YOU SPOKE” by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley

“THE LACK: I KNEW YOUR VOICE BEFORE YOU SPOKE” was inspired by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s love for choose-your-own-adventure games, with players’ decisions influencing every element of their surrounding world’s reconstruction. The installation includes a performance component, featuring bespoke dance mats as video game controllers, and sound generated by players. Brathwaite-Shirley seeks to create an environment of active participation in which the audience is as much the medium as the games they craft. “THE LACK” for Group Hug is curated by Serpentine Arts Technologies. It was originally co-commissioned for Art Night Dundee 2023, by Art Night, NEoN Digital Arts, and Serpentine Arts Technologies.

About the artist

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley

Still from “The Endless Forest” courtesy of Tale of Tales

“The Endless Forest” by Tale of Tales (Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn)

“The Endless Forest” is a multiplayer online game and social screensaver, in which players wander an endless forest as deer. In this dreamlike world, there are no rules or goals, only peaceful exploration and interaction with other players. Designed by Tale of Tales, a games development studio founded by Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn, the game has maintained an active community of users for nearly two decades. “The Endless Forest” is curated by Rhizome for Group Hug.

About the artists

Tale of Tales

Exhibition Partners

About Water Street Projects:

Water Street Projects (WSP) is a roving interdisciplinary platform amplifying creative voices. Their projects include performance art, fairs, festivals, music shows, culinary experiences, and visual arts, which champion diversity and global points of view. Their fluid and expansive attitude for entertainment and education invokes the spirit of Cedric Price’s never-realized Fun Palace commissioned by Joan Littlewood—a forum for a laboratory of fun and a university of the streets.

About Julia Kaganskiy:

Julia Kaganskiy is a curator and cultural strategist working across art, science, and technology since 2009. She is currently Curator-at-Large at LAS Art Foundation in Berlin and is working on exhibitions at Matadero in Madrid and Haus der Elektronic Kunst in Basel. At Dunkunsthalle, she serves as Acting Director alongside artist Rachel Rossin. Julia was previously the founding director of NEW INC, the first museum-led cultural incubator, an initiative of the New Museum in New York. Her curatorial work explores the potential of art as a key interlocutor of emerging science and technology, facilitating critical inquiry and aesthetic exploration. She has curated numerous exhibitions and realized new art-science commissions with 180 the Strand (London), Borusan Contemporary (Istanbul), Fundación Telefonica (Madrid), Matadero (Madrid), Science Gallery (Dublin), Nokia Bell Labs (New Jersey), Accenture Labs (Dublin), and Eyebeam Center for Art & Technology (New York).

About Serpentine Arts Technologies:

The Serpentine Arts Technologies program explores the impact of technology through art, research, and experimental projects. It supports artists to produce projects that use advanced technologies and convenes people working in art, technology, law, policy, and academia to share knowledge and develop new ideas about technology and society.

The foundation of the program is in an evolving R&D platform that nurtures innovation for future art ecologies by securing a crucial institutional space for pragmatic interventions and necessary risk-taking at the intersection of art, science, and technology. This is achieved through dedicated research labs, knowledge-sharing with the wider sector through Future Art Ecosystems, and co-facilitation of a national Creative R&D Working Group.

About Rhizome:

Rhizome is an online arts organization that archives, commissions, and contextualizes digital art, with the unofficial motto “digital art everywhere, for everybody.” Founded by artist Mark Tribe as an email discussion list including some of the first artists to work online, Rhizome has played an integral role in the history of contemporary art engaged with digital technologies and the internet. Rhizome hosts the 7x7 art and technology initiative, and has been an affiliated partner of the New Museum since 2003. Rhizome’s programs take place on the web, in NYC, and beyond.