installation view, Screen Tests N°1 – N°4, HEK Haus der Elektronischen Künste, Basel, 2025

detail, installation view, HEK Haus der Elektronischen Künste, Basel, 2025





Screen Test N°1, videostills
Screen Test N°2, videostills
Screen Test N°3, videostills
Screen Test N°4, videostills




Screen Test N°1 – N°24, overview
Screen Tests is a series of AI-generated black and white video portraits. Each portrait shows a person posing with a hairy, living organic creature, literally merging with it. The connection between the human and the unknown creature does not appear threatening, but harmonious, lovingly friendly, like a beloved pet being stroked on the lap. The eeriness arises from disruptions, from digital glitches - the minimal movements in the poses seem astonishingly realistic, right up to the point where there is suddenly one finger too many or an unrealistic twisting of the limbs, or when the protagonists are completely deformed into a new figure.

The portrait shots of the unequal couples were deliberately staged in the aesthetic of a neutral studio shot, a setting familiar from castings. The title Screen Tests comes from the film industry and refers to the testing of actors for a specific role. It also refers to Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests films, in which he created his own cache of superstars. Superstars are actors interesting enough to carry a film on their own, not by playing a particular role but simply by being themselves. – Whatever they are, or wherever they come from.