Mary-Audrey Ramirez: Forced Amnesia

The exhibition Forced Amnesia, co-produced with Kunsthalle Gießen, where it was presented in the spring of 2023, brings together recent works and new productions by Luxembourg artist Mary-Audrey Ramirez. Digital techniques and creatures inspired by video games are at the heart of Ramirez’s work. The artist’s creative universe is characterised by reflections on the relationship between fantasy and reality and the omnipresence of the digital in our everyday lives.

Taking the form of a journey through various liminal spheres between the known and the unknown, the spaces that Ramirez has designed for Casino Luxembourg are imbued with an emotional tension deriving from the interaction between the work and the audience. As visitors progress through the exhibition, they become fully immersed in this virtual world.

Forced Amnesia culminates in a video game that brings together all the creatures in the exhibition, reinforcing the immersive nature of the exhibition and transposing visitors into their own world. This projection once again reveals the porosity between reality and fiction as two worlds that are no longer hermetic but corresponding.

Ramirez’s complex, multi-layered artistic practice is at once experimental and inquisitive. Through the encounter of multiple worlds—physical and dreamlike—she explores the possibilities and limitations of artificial intelligence (AI). By generating images from an infinite network of existing concepts, AI also reflects social preconceptions and norms.

The title of the exhibition evokes both traumatic amnesia and the deliberate repression of traumatic experiences. Ramirez’s work rethinks the mechanisms and modes of thought that define our existence and systematise our perception. Between invoking a plural memory and transcribing it through the use of digital tools, she considers the possibility of another world against the notion of a pre-established reality.

The works by Mary-Audrey Ramirez (b. 1990, lives and works in Berlin) have been shown in solo and group exhibitions at Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund; Kai 10, Düsseldorf; Haus Mödrath, Kerpen; Margot Samel Gallery, New York; Polansky Gallery, Prague, and MARTINETZ, Cologne. In 2022, the artist took part in Ars Electronica Esch2022. In 2019, she was awarded the Edward Steichen Award Luxembourg paired with a six-month artist residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York. Mary-Audrey Ramirez is represented by MARTINETZ, Cologne.

Curators: Dr. Nadia Ismail, Kunsthalle Giessen, and Kevin Muhlen, Casino Luxembourg—Forum d’art contemporain.