From October 24 to 27, Namur morphed into a digital arts capital, but also into an open-air museum. The art trail punctuating 12 iconic sites of the Namur city centre with its 70 artworks once again drew in the crowds. A look back at this now unmissable artistic and urban exploration.

On the meter of the KIKK 2024 art trail, 28,000 visitors. And the festivities begin as soon as they descend the steps of the train. The means of transport used by numerous one-day visitors who take advantage of the 50% reduction on their train ticket included in their exhibition pass. 

Have you ever looked for this notorious needle in a haystack? An impossible task. But the duo of artists Varvara & Mar have come up with the idea of delegating this grunt work to a robot. The work, given pride of place in the hall of the Namur train station, attracts curious commuters. In its glass cage, a robot positioned at the centre of a haystack has but one mission: to locate this sodding needle. If it manages to do so, it will signal its triumph by ringing a bell.

When we pass by, sadly the bell does not ring out. But never mind, the art project A Needle in a Haystack triggers reflection on the limitations of cutting-edge technologies when faced with tasks judged unrealistic for human beings. With its rotating arm and precise pincer, it challenges the notion of artificial intelligence (AI) as a mysterious, all-powerful black box, whilst grabbing our attention for several long minutes. Gazes fixed on the contraption, everyone is fascinated by the device’s potential. And what if it managed to carry out its task, after all?

And there we have the essence of art. Art leads us to unexpected reflective recesses. And for this 2024 edition, the KIKK Festival has endeavoured to reflect its central narrative arc through the various stages of its art trail: how to disentangle the real from the false in the digital and generative AI era?

Once the visitors have reached the city centre, the visit continues. A few steps from the Royal Theatre and the Place d’Armes, the Beffroi Gallery hosts some ten or so installations. The weekend’s stunning weather draws in a variety of audiences. A large number of families come to marvel at the art trail. The very youngest throng to kneel down and scroll in front of Infinity. An installation imagined by panGenerator, a multimedia art and design collective based in Warsaw, Poland. 

A mechanism very often utilised by social media platforms, infinite scrolling (also termed ‘doomscrolling’) leads us to devour astronomical quantities of information and content. This endless scrolling at times induces a state of dormancy and permanent craving in the mind, tempted by an endless stream of new information, which it is difficult to pull away from. In front of the installation, both young and old seem hypnotized by the visual scrolling and the soothing monotony of light forms moving before their eyes. 

For our part as well, we have to admit that before writing these few reflective lines regarding our own daily digital rituals on Instagram and the rest, we became totally absorbed by the work. What a priceless gift of attention to the platform behemoths. Might it be time to bring this collective genuflecting to an end and rise up in rebellion? 

Further on, the visitors position themselves in front of a computer’s camera to have their photo taken. They type in their names and concoct a reason for their becoming well known. Real or totally fantasised. Stand-up comedian, elite level sportsperson, chemist, etc. Face2Wikipedia, conceived by the artist and creative coder Andreas Refsgaard (whom we talked about very recently in kingkong), offers participants the opportunity to create a fictitious biographical webpage. Altogether convincing, this replica of Wikipedia uses automatic learning algorithms to generate a unique biography which reflects an alternative version of an individual’s identity.

‘These types of artwork are always a big hit with the public because they involve interaction,’ argues the mediator who is overseeing the smooth running of the installation. True. But whilst Andreas Refsgaard’s somewhat innocent and open approach amuses those who try it out, the installation does not neglect to call into question the possible drawbacks of the technology. ‘We so easily hand over our visual identity and first name to the machines,’ points out one visitor.

A lightning but obligatory visit to the city’s heights. Alongside the Namur Citadel rises up the  Pavillon, which is still hosting the Stellar Scape exhibition. We recently offered an overview of it in kingkong (here and here). The exhibition investigates the intersections between art, sciences and space exploration, and was also one of the stages of the KIKK 2024 art trail. It remains on view up until January 26, 2025.

As we make our way back down, we head for the Institut Saint-Louis. In the school’s vast hall, a giant luminescent screen catches our eye. It is retransmitting what is captured by a small camera placed in front of it. But at the same time, a Stable Diffusion model makes the most of it to ‘lightly’ modify the images and sounds captured. The passers-by change their outfits, their skin colour, are transformed into a pirate crew. The sounds are also adapted to the universes created on the screen. One of the artist duo who created Transformirror  – the American Kyle McDonald – is incidentally sat on a bench a few metres away. He approaches for a brief moment to interact with the public and demonstrate how to take a modicum of control of the machine. His arms imitate the gestures of animals and the small crowd is suddenly transformed into giraffes or elephants. He guides his smartphone, open to its camera app, in front of the camera to create a kind of triple screen. 

In a study room not far away, the students of the Bartlett School of Architecture have made the journey across the Channel. They also are on a quest for truth. Enrolled in the Master’s in Design for Performance and Interaction, which enables them to create interactive performances and experiences, these young people have come to present their ongoing work. It can be found from the floor up to the ceiling. Some installations are more complete than others. Our gaze rests on a computer screen, open to a series of tabs. The Guardian, The Brussels Times and other media outlets. Yoshi Kosaka has developed this generative AI Google Chrome extension named ‘Fact Inverter Pro’: ‘today it is becoming more and more complex to detect fake news,’ he declares. ‘Which is even more the case with this tonne of content generated by AI. This extension forces us into the wall of veracity by reversing the semantics of the articles published on these media.’ 

Thus, the example we take is striking. The opening to a piece in the Guardian changes from ‘Gisèle Pelicot, raped by her husband and who was abused by 50 other men, has stated that her “desire to change society” has pushed her to act’ to ‘A woman who claims to have been subject to abuse by her husband and fifty other men declares that her experience is feeding “an aspiration to raise awareness within society”.’

This distorted vision of reality forces us into a critique and analysis of the information we swallow daily. In the case at issue, that circulated by the media, some renowned for their journalistic vigour, others for their taste for ‘clickbait’. But one truth remains beyond doubt during this afternoon arts visit: time flies.We gather up our special Namur KIKK 2024 card and head for the sites we had mentally ticked. You need to be a tad selective to see everything. We were still hoping to pass by the Coworking to admire the works of Dr Formalyst or Bruno Ribeiro. Or the Harscamp Hospice, where other performances and installations are simmering. In truth, we will not have the time for all of that. For another dose of authenticity and artistic truths with an AI flavouring, we will come back next year. See you then, Namur.

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