ESPEN KLUGE: "giving normal people abnormal experiences"

After the successful solo exhibition “Alternatives” of Norwegian digital artist Espen Kluge at Kate Vass Galerie in October 2019, we are happy to announce that selected Espen Kluge cryptoworks are now featured in a brand new exhibition in Virtual Reality: "giving normal people abnormal experiences", which you can experience on decentralized land of SomniumSpace parcel 1047 at M○C△- Museum of Crypto Art. 10 digital works (NFTs on blockchain) have been acquired from Opensea by the Museum for their collection and the new experience space has been developed just for Espen Kluge art.

The idea of pushing the boundaries of human imagination of how you can exhibit, look at, and experience art came to the reality with technological progress and platforms like Somnium Space, which enables us to curate all of the aspects: architecture, the composition of works, colors as well as audio effects.

Espen Kluge Exhibition View on Somnium Space @MoCA

It was exciting to work on this show and collaborate with MoCA team and to be the first physical gallery in the world to help to deliver one-of-a-kind artist experience. You can feel the space mirroring the artworks, and this is something that I love about VR. It helps to extend the reality and go beyond the two-dimensional work. In a creative process with MoCA Team we were able to create a unique space with a vectored build architecture that emphasizes the linear elements of construction used in Espen's Kluge art.

The title chosen for this program replicates the name of the main artwork that you see right at the entrance of the VR space: "giving normal people abnormal experiences." The titles of the works are an additional extraordinary about Espen's practice, and he says: "Each piece is named by finding some information about the image that I have as a source photo. I try just to pick some words and put it as a title without thinking anything about it."

The music is another component that was taken into consideration while curating this exhibition. Kluge is a talented artist in many ways. You may recognize his compositions for the Norwegian television show Who Killed Birgitte? For this particular VR show we have brought his music to accompany the beautiful artworks, as you enter the space you are surrounded with the sound of his recent audio creation. As you move further through the door, the melody evolves to a different one. Currently, Espen works on his new album, which comes out in the fall this year. It has its origin from a project that he did in 2019, where he created one piece of music every day. The album contains the best 25 pieces from the first 100. He will be releasing it on all major digital platforms, and we will post news of its arrival on our socials. Meanwhile, you can enjoy some of the tracks here. 

The artist Espen Kluge at the opening of his solo show at Kate Vass Galerie, Oct. 2019

Espen Kluge ‘giving normal people abnormal experiences’ at the entrance of the MoCA exhibition space on Somnium.

Some unique works by the artist are available as NFTs on the blockchain on Opensea and as prints from his solo show at Kate Vass Galerie in Zürich. Many clients ask me: "…what if I buy a digital work, can I also print it?" I would like to respond to this question here. As a client, of course, you are not prohibited from doing so, however, this printed version of yours, let us call it "a poster," won't be considered like an artwork by the artist, and most importantly, it won't have a required quality and value either.

"Printing these pieces is not a very simple task. That is partly due to the extreme detail of the actual graphics making it important to move the graphics from code to a printable file without losing clarity (thousands of lines look terrible using bad conversion or resize algorithms). Also, the actual printing process needs special attention and consideration for each piece to secure the best possible outcome. I can say that by being really thorough in the printing process, I have become extremely happy with the unique print edition of the series." Espen Kluge

For the ones who would like to have both: print and digital, we advise contacting us and buy the original artwork, which is produced and signed by the artist, as well as accompanied by the Certificate of Authenticity. The true collector goes for the highest standard, and we are happy to support the artist and the collector by delivering the best provenance. The prints are all unique and available in 3 sizes: 30x40cm, 50x70cm, and 70x90cm accordingly. If you own the token and would like to accompany it with the physical work, let us know.

Meanwhile, I encourage everyone to visit VR experience @Moca on Somnium Space and check out the artist page.

I would like to say special thank you to Moca Team: Colborn Bell, Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile and Desiree Casoni.

References:

1. In the promo video the music is by Osiris - 21st Century Divide.

2. The video with the rotation of all works is accompanied by the music composed by Espen Kluge.

Sincerely yours,

Kate Vass

Espen Kluge ‘giving normal people abnormal experiences’ 2019, Unique NFT

Espen Kluge, ‘she really thinks about it‘, 2019 Unique Print