LuYang DOKU Experience Center

Born in Shanghai, LuYang is one of the most important contemporary Asian artists and this year’s Deutsche Bank “Artist of the Year.” LuYang belongs to a young art scene in China inspired by science fiction, manga, gaming, and techno culture that works with hypermodern technologies and deals with the ideas of posthumanism or transhumanism. These schools of thought explore how to extend the limits of human possibilities through the use of high-tech. What is extraordinary about LuYang’s work is that the posthuman is put in the context of Buddhist and Hindu cosmologies.

The exhibition DOKU Experience Center focuses entirely on a virtual reincarnation called Dokusho Dokushi, or DOKU for short. The gender-neutral avatar is a hyperrealistic figure whose countenance is modeled on LuYang’s face. All facial expressions and movement patterns are performed by dancers and then recorded using motion capture technology, a process that generates 3D models on this basis for video games, for example.

As in a futuristic research laboratory, all six digital versions of DOKU can be experienced in the exhibition. In addition to the first narrative video DOKU the Self, LuYang’s music video DOKU the Matrix, conceived expressly for the show, and the new series Bardo #1, which shows the avatar with its respective attributes in round mandala compositions, are presented.

LuYang studied at the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou and lives and works in Shanghai. Since 2015, LuYang has been involved in numerous group exhibitions worldwide, currently at The Milk of Dreams, 59th Venice Biennale. The artist has had solo exhibitions in Beijing, Moscow, and most recently Aarhus and Erlangen, and as of end of September at the Zabludowicz Collection. 2019 awardee of the BMW Art Journey.

All artworks © LuYang, courtesy the artist and Société, Berlin