June 11–September 20, 2026
AI technologies are fundamentally changing how images are created, processed, disseminated, described, and viewed. Their influence on visual culture and contemporary art practice is one of the most visible manifestations of AI, which is governed by opaque technical processes. Running from June 11 to September 20, 2026, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt’s major summer exhibition features artworks that explore the cognitive, psychological, political, and ecological dimensions of AI.
The wide-ranging, thematically organized exhibition will occupy both of the Schirn’s spaces with around forty works from the past ten years to the present, including video installations, graphic works, sculptures, photographs, and several new works produced specifically for the exhibition.
Sebastian Baden, Director of the Schirn, notes: “The Schirn dedicates its major contemporary exhibition The World Through AI to artificial intelligence and the question of how it is transforming our world. In doing so, we address one of the most radical and significant social and technological upheavals of our time. Across both exhibition spaces at the Schirn, international artistic positions lend a physical and sensory presence to AI, a realm that otherwise tends to remain abstract and is shaped by invisible processes and black boxes. Engagement with the artworks allows many of the pressing ethical, ecological, and political questions currently surrounding AI to become visible, opening these concerns up for discussion.”
The show will examine a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from resources and environmental concerns to perception, machine vision, face and emotion recognition, and memory. The works of art address microwork, the establishment of alternative historical narratives, and visions of the future, as well as “AI slop” and “slopaganda” (the use of AI-generated images as a new form of political propaganda).
These works are accompanied by a series of time capsules, forming a secondary register in the exhibition that links the present to the past, thereby embedding today’s technological transformations in a historical context.
Antonio Somaini and Katharina Dohm, curators of the exhibition, further remark: “Artificial intelligence has become an integral part of public discourse, and its growing reach extends across all areas of society. Within this broad thematic field, artworks that engage with AI offer a unique perspective. They enable viewers to understand how AI shapes the way we think, feel, and live, and what it means to experience the world through AI. Using a range of artistic strategies, the artists in the exhibition illuminate many facets of AI and its impact on society. They experiment with algorithmic systems, train their own AI models, explore future scenarios, and visualize alternative, counterfactual pasts, providing coordinates and critical tools for navigating a growing AI landscape and creating the potential to act beyond the mainstream.”
Artists in the exhibtion: Nora Al-Badri, Nouf Aljowaysir, Timo Arnall, Érik Bullot, Julian Charrière, Grégory Chatonsky, Kate Crawford & Vladan Joler, Harun Farocki, Daniel Felstead & Jenn Leung, Joan Fontcuberta, Adam Harvey, Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst, Andrea Khôra, Agnieszka Kurant, Occitane Lacurie & Barnabé Sauvage, George Legrady, Meta Office, Marina Otero Verzier, Trevor Paglen, Jacques Perconte, Julien Prévieux, Inès Sieulle, Hito Steyerl, Sasha Stiles, Ania Szczepańska, Taller Estampa, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Gwenola Wagon
The new publication SCHIRN PAPER is published three times a year at the Schirn’s new location. It complements the digital SCHIRN MAG. To accompany the exhibition „The World through AI“ Issue 3, Summer 2026, is published with contributions by Nouf Aljowaysir, Grégory Chatonsky, Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst, Marina Mónaco, Lisa Reinhard, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Antonio Somaini, Josefine Soppa, Eugenia Stamboliev, Urban Privacy, and Marie Warsh, German-English edition, 80 pages, approx. 95 illustrations, 22.5 × 30 cm, paperback, also available by subscription, see: SCHIRN.DE/EN/ABO
The Catalog The World Through AI, published by Ada Ackerman, Alexandre Gefen, Antonio Somaini, and Pia Viewing, featuring contributions by Ada Ackerman, Noam Elcott and Tim Trombley, Alexandre Gefen, Nick Monfort, Fabian Offert, Antonio Somaini, and Joanna Zylinska, English edition, 304 pages, approx. 220 illustrations, 15.5 x 21.5 cm, softcover, JBE Books, ISBN 978-2-36568-108-7, 35 € (SCHIRN), 39 € (book trade)
The exhibition “The World Through AI” is supported by the SCHIRN FREUNDE and the city of Frankfurt am Main. Additional support is provided by the Aventis Foundation and fiber to the people GmbH.
Exhibition organized by Jeu de Paume, Paris, in collaboration with Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.
Director: Sebastian Baden
Curators: Antonio Somaini with Katharina Dohm and Cornelia Eisendle, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. Research assistants: Jules Conchy and Samuel Solé
Press contact: Johanna Pulz (Head of Press/Public Relations): presse [at] schirn.de / T +49 (0) 69 29 98 82 148
Press material: here
