Troika: Buenavista

Troika’s work explores the shifting boundaries between nature and artificiality, the real and the romantic, the living and the nonliving. The German-French collective examines how new technologies affect our relationship with the world. Founded in 2003, Troika—comprised of the artist trio Eva Rucki, Conny Freyer, and Sebastien Noel—works across various media, including sculpture, film, installation, and painting. The group probes alternative forms of intelligence—plant, animal, human, artificial—and how they shape the understanding of place in a more-than-human world. 

For the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Troika developed the site-specific installation Buenavista, combining new and existing works in an immersive experience. The exhibition is illuminated by the shifting spectrum of light of Ultra Red, Evergreen, Ocean Blue (2024) and centers around the computer-animated film Buenavista (2025), which is paired with the multichannel sound installation I Am a River (2025). As part of the surrounding landscape, the installation Anima Atman (2024) is included, as well as three paintings from the series Irma Watched Over by Machines (2023). The exhibition reflects upon earthly and otherworldly landscapes and the transformation of nature in the twenty-first century through the rise of technology.

Sebastian Baden, director of the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, notes: “In a striking way and with great atmospheric impact, Troika’s art sharpens our view of the world—of how it is changing through the technological filter we apply to it, and through which we increasingly perceive it. At the Schirn, the artist collective unfolds a futuristic landscape created by the influence of digitalization and artificial intelligence, and presents two new works developed especially for the exhibition. With their installation Buenavista, the artists address highly topical issues and processes of change that affect our immediate present and confront us with physical, moral, and social challenges.”

How does technology filter the perception of nature? What forms of life shall take root in such mediated landscapes? The installation Buenavista conjures the environmental imagination of an alternative intelligence, one whose dreams are shaped by human memories and fantasies. Spectacular scenes of nature flash across screens and decorate computer desktops: palm-fringed beaches, ice sheets punctuated by lakes of turquoise meltwater, rippling sand dunes under starry skies. Forests are surveilled by cameras perched in treetops, on the watch for storms and wildfires. Climate models predict long-term changes in the biosphere. In a society saturated with digital images, descriptions, and simulations, Troika’s work presents a vision of environmental yearning that transcends human embodiment.

Dehlia Hannah, curator of the exhibition, further remarks: “One once had to rise at dawn or climb a mountain and immerse oneself in the world to access a ‘beautiful view.’ Today, such images are delivered to our phones and computers in a constant stream of enticement. From advertisements for tourism to reports of environmental catastrophes, we scroll through the planet’s extremes. Have the landscapes of fantasy ever felt so close—or so far away? If subjectivity is shaped in relation to our environs, who are we becoming? The artist collective Troika follows these questions in an immersive new installation which allows us to perceive shifting boundaries in the present and imagine a more-than-human world with all our senses.”

The exhibition Troika: Buenavista is supported by the SCHIRN ZEITGENOSSEN and the Aventis Foundation, as well as the Partner of the Schirn American Express. With additional support from the Stiftung Stark für Gegenwartskunst.

Director: Sebastian Baden
Curator: Dehlia Hannah
Press contact: Johanna Pulz (Head of Press/Public Relations): presse [at] schirn.de / T +49 (0) 69 29 98 82 148 / Press material