GLITCH: ONTOLOGICAL EXHAUSTIONS & SYSTEM FAILURES

14 March 2025 - 4 May 2025
In Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta, Malta

With the group exhibition GLITCH: ONTOLOGICAL EXHAUSTIONS & SYSTEM FAILURES, Spazju Kreattiv transforms into an amplifier for reflections on digitality & resistance, history & remembrance. Aesthetic "disruptions" (glitches) created in the exhibits challenge the audience to think critically and historically about the state of our technology-dependent society, enabling an international comparison of protest movements over the past 100 years.

Glitching reveals the fragile boundaries of existence we no longer perceive as our own but as belonging to technology—a discomforting realm of technocracy and external, authoritarian control. We encounter a world of the non-physical, one that we neither fully understand nor control, where surveillance, automation, and algorithmic dependency creates complex states of exhaustion and learned helplessness, which leads us down uncertain passages.

How old is the glitch? If we believe historical sources, it has always existed. The Tractatus de Penitentia (c. 1285) by Johannes Galensis (John of Wales) introduces a subversive demon named Titivillus, the "patron demon of scribes," who collected errors: omitted, mumbled, and mispronounced words—especially those that clerics were said to have “stolen from God” during their morning prayers. He carefully preserved these glitches for their indictment at the end of days.

The history of resistance in East Germany demonstrates that it is indeed possible to rewrite a hegemonic canon that was meant to be forgotten. With the help of powerful but glitching programs, the erased self-assertion of forgotten resistance fighters can be reinscribed into the historical record of European literature.

For digital artists, Glitch Art provides a metaphysical toolkit to visualize, interpret, challenge—then deconstruct—technocratic, dictatorial, or repressive systems and their neoliberal, communist, and capitalist designs for human capture/control.

Artists: Ruth Bianco (Malta), Joana Moll (Barcelona/ ​​Cologne), Katrin Leitner (Kassel, GER), Nadja Verena Marcin (Berlin/ New York), Michael Betancourt, Ian Keaveny (Ireland) and Niklas Washausen (Berlin/ Greifswald, GER). Editorial design: Luis Borchardt & Dean Schwarz (Berlin). Curator: Verena Voigt (PLATFORM GLITCH AESTHETICS / GFZK e.V. )
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MICHAEL BETANCOURT
Research Artist, Critical Theorist, Savannah, GA (USA)
Memory Hole, 2025
Movie, 2:00 min. loop, silent; 1920x1080p
Software: AImaglitch movies generated with DrawThings; additional processing done with Adobe AfterEffects, Photoshop, Premiere; VLC; HandBrake; databending and compression with MPEG-1, H264, and MPEG-4
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Eastalgia, 2025
Movie, 2:00 min., silent; 1920x1080p
Software: AImaglitch movies generated with DrawThings; additional processing done with Adobe AfterEffects, Photoshop, Premiere; VLC; Avidemux; HandBrake; datamoshing, databending, and compression with MPEG-1, H264, and MPEG-4
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KATRIN LEITNER
Multimedia Artist, Kassel (GER)
PFA-BLACKTERRAPLATETS-BODYDISSOLUTION-MATRIXGLITCH, 2022
Fine Art Print auf Alu-Dibond
KÜNSTLERIN-GESPRÄCH AM 4. Mai 2025
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JOANA MOLL
Artist & Researcher, Professor of Networks, Academy of Media Arts Cologne, (ES/GER)
Carbolytics, 2022, Video-Installation
Technical Development Ramin Soleymani
Research Team at BSC Fernando Cucchietti, Patricio Reyes, Marta Esteban Fernández & Carlos García Calatrava
Commissioned by Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2022
In the framework of konS – Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art
The project konS: Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art was chosen on the public call for the selection of the operations “Network of Investigative Art and Culture Centres”. The investment is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union.
Joana Moll: Data Extraction, Materiality and Agency, 2022
Artist talk by Joana Moll at Cukrarna Gallery in Ljubljana, 16th February 2022, Video-Screen, 36:52 min. loop
Courtesy Gallery Aksioma 
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NIKLAS WASHAUSEN
Artist, Art Educator, Researcher (GER)

Is the glitch still a save passage?
Eckert_Glitch, 2025, 01:26 min. loop (Edeltraut Eckert, 1930 – 1955, Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße 67a, Potsdam)
Pfeiffer_Glitch, 2024, 00:59 min. loop (Jörns Pfeiffer, 1944 – 1980, August-Bebel-Straße 26-53, Potsdam)
Kabus_Glitch, 2024, 01:07 min. loop (Sylvia Kabus, *1952, August-Bebel-Straße 26-53, Potsdam)
Krolkiewicz_Glitch, 2024, 01:15 min. loop (Rolf-Günter Krolkiewicz, 1955 – 2008, Hans-Otto-Theater, Potsdam)
Kuffel_Glitch, 2025, 01:14 min. loop (Eveline Kuffel, 1935 – 1978, Schloss/Jugendwerkhof Schenkendorf)
Wullstein_Glitch, 2025, 01:38 min. loop (Renate Wullstein, *1952, Breite Straße 23a, Potsdam)
Software: Premiere Pro, Photoshop, MiniMaxAI, RX-SSTV, SSTV Encoder, Google StreetView, Processing
Hardware: Portable Scanner
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COLLABORATION
Michael Betancourt (USA), Ian Keaveny (IRL), Niklas Washausen (GER)
OV (Operativer Vorgang [Operational Procedures]), 2025
Movie, 3:00 min. loop, silent (vertical video); 1080x1920p
Software: AImaglitch elements generated with DrawThings; additional processing done with Adobe AfterEffects, Photoshop, Premiere; VLC; Avidemux; HandBrake; datamoshing, databending, and compression with MPEG-1, H264, and MPEG-4
(In order of appearance): Wolf Biermann, Eckehard Schall, Christiane Ufholz, Christian Kunert, Franz Fühmann, Jutta Hoffmann, Erich Arendt, Eberhard Esche, Fritz Rudolf Fries, Gerhard Wolf, Cox Habbema, Günter Kunert, Gerulf Pannach, Jurek Becker, Jürgen Böttcher, Eva-Maria Hagen, Thomas Schoppe, Bettina Wegner, Susanne Kerckhoff, Katharina Thalbach, Hans Joachim Schädlich, Heiner Müller, Käthe Reichel, Klaus Schlesinger, Kurt Bartsch, Kurt Demmler, Manfred Krug, Nina Hagen, Rolf Ludwig, Rolf Schneider, Stefan Heym, Stephan Hermlin, T.K. Tragelehn, Thomas Brasch, Ulrich Plenzdorf, Volker Braun, Angelika Domröse, Christa Wolf, Christian Schoppe.
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RUTH BIANCO (MT)
Multidisciplinary Research Artist, Art Educator in Art-in-Architecture
Daria's Vision, 2011, 2025
Multimedia Video Installation / Storyboard / Collage Panel   
Revisitation of Installation, SJC Centre for Creativity (Spazju Kreattiv), Valletta, 2011
Videoinstallation, 14:00 min. loop
Music Soundtrack: Mariella Cassar Cordina, Composer
Published in the artist's book Camouflage, Revolution and Desire – drawing from movies (2012) by Ruth Bianco & Richard Davies. 
Exhibited in: 3 Artists - 3 Composers (2011); a collaboration between contemporary Art and Music for the Contemporary Sounds Project, MACM.
After the Book (2012); The Horse Hospital, Bloomsbury, London.
XXIX Sarajevo Winter Festival Art of Touch (2013), City Gallery Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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crash-stop aka Ian.Keaveny, Glitch Artist, Activist, Curator, Cultural Worker @crash-stop (IRL)
Requiem for a Dream, 2025
Video-Essay on Meta, algorithmic censorship, shadowbanning and Meta’s problem with glitch art.
Video Essay Installation, 25:44 min loop
Software: LMDE os, Libre Impress, Gimp, simplescreenrecorder, kdenlive, handbrake, scripts using gnucoreutils and imagemagick.
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Ghosts of Propaganda, 2024
Glitched and X11 poisoning of found digital video based on Leni Riefenstahls propaganda film Triumph of the Will (1935)
Videoinstallation, 01:12:04 loop
Software: Gnuinos os, Devuan 5 os , ffmpeg/ffplay, Cheese webcam booth, handbrake, scripts using gnucoreutils and imagemagick, Upscayl,  kdenlive, handbrake.
Hardware – Dell Wyse 5010 Thin client DxOD (X11 poisoning), vga to hdmi converter, hdmi to usb3 converter , Nvidia 1050/1060
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The Ecstasy of Resistance, 2024
Displacement mapping , colourshift and X11 poisoning of Leni Riefenstahls Triumph of the will (1935) and Extase (1933) with actress Hedy Lamarr
Videoinstallation, 01:24:49 loop
Software: Gnuinos os, Devuan 5 os , ffmpeg/ffplay, Cheese webcam booth, handbrake, scripts using gnucoreutils and imagemagick, Upscayl,  kdenlive, handbrake.
Hardware – Dell Wyse 5010 Thin client DxOD (X11 poisoning), vga to hdmi converter, hdmi to usb3 converter , Nvidia 1050/1060

New Ancestors, 2025 (7 Video-Installations)
2d to 3d conversion and animation of images of censored and imprisoned East German writers (1945-89):
Susanne Kerckhoff (1918-1950)
Edeltraut Eckert (1930-1955)
Inge Müller (1925–66)
Jutta Petzold (1933–2020)
Hannelore Becker (1951–1976)
Jürgen Fuchs (1950–1999)
Günter Ullmann (1946–2009)
Software: Lmde os / Devuan 5/ Debian 12, Geowizard python scripts , imagemagick, Meshlab, simplescreenrecorder, online 2d to 3d conversion software, openctm-tools, scripts using gnucoreutils, kdenlive, handbrake.
Hardware – Nvidia 1050/1060 
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NADJA VERENA MARCIN
Visual Artist, Filmmaker, Researcher, Founder/Director of Cultural Organization (GER / USA)
Zero Gravity, 2013
Video, HD, 2:11 min
© Nadja Verena Marcin & VG Bild-Kunst, Videography: Violetta D’Agata
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The project is supported by Spazju Kreattiv as part of the 2024/2025 programme,  German-Maltese Circle (Valletta) & Goethe-Institute (Rome) & Valletta Design Cluster.
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Satellite Event 2
Daria’s Vision: Resistance, Spatial Dissolution, and Slowness
With Ruth Bianco & Verena Voigt
May 4, 11 a.m.

The artist talk explores concepts of resistance, spatial dissolution, and slowness. A moderated tour of the exhibition with curator Verena Voigt allows for comparisons of space and time.

Ruth Bianco approaches GLITCH ART through collage, film, and pre-digital processes. Her book Camouflage Revolution & Desire (2012) developed an analogue glitch aesthetic, inspired by the radical New Wave in filmmaking of the 1960s as a topical medium to explore new prospects in the collage language. In her installation, Bianco transforms the final explosion scene from Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point (1970) into a 14-minute video collage, linking the 2011 Arab Spring protests with coded interpretations of global disquietudes and recurring social unrest.

Daria’s Vision plays with memory, media, and history. Using split-screen techniques, Antonioni’s iconic images are overlaid with journalistic footage of the 2011 protests. Past and present merge into a new, future narrative. First shown in Valletta in 2011, the installation highlights how glitch and collage can inform each other. 
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Satellite Event 1: Ines Geipel & Verena Voigt
The German Double Helix of Memory, March 19, 7 pm

Reading and discussion with Ines Geipel on Beautiful New Sky (2022 / Engl. translation 2024), presented as part of the exhibition Glitch: Ontological Exhaustion & System Failures.

The history of Germany’s 20th century is marked by entangled continuities—an intricate double helix of memory, where past regimes cast long shadows over the present. One of the most audacious, ambitious, and incredibly arrogant ideas of the Cold War era was the extension of communism’s influence into space. Spurred by Hitler’s defeat and the competitive rivalry with the United States, the Soviet space program experienced a frenzy of scientific activity aimed at demonstrating communist superiority beyond Earth’s boundaries. In the 1970s GDR, top-secret military laboratories were established to create the optimally standardized bodies that cosmonauts would require. The New Human – the modern colonist of space – was rigorously trained to endure years of weightlessness. Experiments were conducted in prisons, hospitals, barracks and in sports to engineer the perfect body: self-sufficient and capable of withstanding extreme conditions for as long as possible. To exert dominance over space, it was first necessary to exercise total control over those being trained to conquer it. 

Ines Geipel unravels this largely unknown and extraordinary story by delving into East German military records and speaking with those who bear the scars of this state-imposed trauma. Some of the older scientists conducting experiments had already served under the Nazi regime; others threw themselves into military research programs and cooperation with the Stasi to avoid confronting the emotional legacy of the war. This continuity of ideological coercion, spanning from the Third Reich into the GDR, exemplifies the German double helix of memory—where past and present remain inexorably intertwined. Written like a thriller and infused with the empathy of someone who has personally experienced the crippling effects of state-managed doping programs in the former GDR, this book uncovers some of the most unsettling episodes of Germany’s recent past.

The reading and moderated discussion will take place with a translator. Afterwards, there will be an opportunity for an informal Walk & Talk through the group exhibition, together with Ines Geipel and the curator. Presented by the German-Maltese Circle Valletta and the Goethe-Institut Rome.
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The PLATFORM GLITCH AESTHETIC was founded in 2023 with the help of the NEUSTART KULTUR funding "Platforms of Fine Arts" from funds from the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media.
Moderation & Concept: Verena Voigt M.A. GFZK e.V. (Investigative Curator)
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In Cooperation with Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Norbert Gronau, Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik, Prozesse und Systeme.

Digitalvilla in Potsdam
Hedy-Lamarr-Platz, 14482 Potsdam