WRO 2023 Biennale: Fungible Content
May 10–25, 2023
Subiektywna Instytucja Kultury’s 66P, Wrocław
The 20th WRO Media Art Biennale explores how art responds to today’s shifting meanings, symbols, and messages—many of which are shaped by politics, technology, and media. This year’s edition focuses on attunement: the process of building relationships through mutual exchange, listening, and co-creation.
Ahead of the Biennale, the Biennale launched Art Wires, a series of lectures, workshops, and exercises with experts. Together with volunteers, they explored accessibility, inclusivity, and new ways of engaging with diverse audiences, including people with disabilities and neurodiverse perspectives.
The Biennale presents works created in collaboration with international partners and during artistic residencies across Europe. Some projects will premiere at WRO, while others continue ongoing conversations about how communication and meaning evolve in times of change.
Among these projects, Nadja Verena Marcin’s #SOPHYGRAY stands out as a feminist reimagining of the digital assistant. Presented as both an immersive installation and a mobile app, it engages audiences with witty, philosophical, and thought-provoking responses informed by intersectional feminist perspectives.
The work challenges the gendered design of mainstream virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri, whose submissive, feminized voices reinforce stereotypes and hierarchies of power. Instead, #SOPHYGRAY builds a living archive of feminist thought, shaped by user interaction and collective contribution.
The installation expands into performance through collaborations with dancers Dasha Bogdan and Sofiia Onishchenko, whose embodied dialogue turns the space into a site of shared experience and reflection.
Curated by Piotr Krajewski, the Biennale brings together over 70 artists across 13 venues, including 50 new works. Alongside Nadja Verena Marcin, participants include Susana Ballesteros & Jano Montañés (OPN Studio), Leon Butler, Emanuel Gollob, So Kanno, Akihiro Kato & Takemi Watanuki (Kazokutchi), Rosa Menkman, Paula Nishijima, Total Refusal, T(n)C, Marleine van der Werf, and many others.
Through performances, installations, and collaborative projects, the WRO Biennale becomes more than an exhibition—it is a living process, shaped by artists and audiences together, where meaning is created, exchanged, and redefined.
INSTITUTION
WRO Art Center
ul. Widok 7
50‑052 Wrocław
Poland
LINK TO EXHIBITION
WRO 2023 Biennale: Fungible Content
LINK TO ARTWORK
#SOPHYGRAY at WRO 2023 Biennale
CURATORS
Piotr Krajewski (artistic director), Dominika Kluszczyk (curator of #SOPHYGRAY project)
ARTISTS
Alizée Armet, Leon Butler, Aleksandra Chciuk, Filip Gabriel Pudło, Bartłomiej Talaga, Marek Chołoniewski, Cod.Act, Thomas Dekeyser, Andrew Culp, Dana Papachristou, Food Think Tank, Karina Marusińska, Gosia Rojek, Marta Śniady,
Emanuel Gollob, Oleksandr Holiuk, Alek Janicki, Anna
ARTISTS
Kaczkowska, Elżbieta Kowalska, So Kanno, Akihiro Kato, Takemi Watanuki, Valerie Karpan, Maryna Khrypun, Klaudia Kasperska, Jan Kowal, Kacper Krajewski, Sonia Kujawa, Peter Kutin, Patrik Lechner, Mathias Lenz, Norman Leto, Vitalina Lui Magomedova, Madina Mahomedova, Frederik de Bleser, Robert Mainka, Nadja Verena Marcin, Monika Masłoń, Rosa Menkman, Piotr Michalski, Mikro Orchestra: Paweł Janicki, Mariusz Jura, Jarosław Kujda, Małgorzata Kujda, Tomasz Procków, Paula Nishijima, OPN Studio: Susana Ballesteros, Jano Montañés, Hyunjung Park, Wojciech Puś, Random Check: Laura Adel, Michał Bednarski, Zuzanna Klepacka, Zuzanna Kliniewska, Bartosz Koziar, Paweł Masin, Weronika Mikłusiak, Julia Piątek, Adam Porębski, Marcin Rupociński, Alperen Sahin, Piotr Tokarz, Aleksandra Trojanowska, Maja Wolińska, Agata Zemla, Olgierd Żemojtel, Józef Robakowski, Rybn.org, The SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA: Ken Furudate, Daisuke Ishida, Kazuhiro Jo, Mizuki Noguchi, Winnie Soon, T(N)C: Agnes Varnai, Tina Kult, Total Refusal: Susanna Flock, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, Michael Stumpf, Franek Warzywa, Mlody B, Marleine van der Werf, Karolina Wojtas, Małgorzata Wrońska, Tao Ya-Lun, Shota Yamauchi, wallobserver.eu, ŻÓŁĆ, Anonymous Filmmaker from Myanmar
SPONSORS
The project is made possible by the WRO Biennale, EMAP/ EMARE Residency at Onassis Stegi, co-funded by Creative Europe program of the European Union, the Stiftung Kunstfonds in Bonn, the Ministry of Culture of North Rhine-Westphalia, NEUSTART KULTUR of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and Legislature of the State of New York, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and sponsored by Novatec.