For our first news article, we are delighted to announce that ‘The Singing Tree in the Midst of the Garden I,’ a modular-medium sculpture by ARIAN Bagheri Pour Fallah, known mononymously as ARIAN, is currently on display as part of Ars Electronica 2021 Garden London / Zurich.

The work features an idiosyncratic take on land art making an equally unique use of blockchain technology, and is one of the 30 fragments constituting the site-specific artwork, Man in the Sound of God (MENSCH im Klang Gottes), designed by Arian while Artist-in-Residence at the Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen, earlier this year.

It is worth noting that the ‘file’ on display at the exhibition (derived from the IPFS source of the corresponding NFT) is neither the fragment nor the artwork. In addition to informing how the work is structurally organized (details to follow), this simple given plays a crucial role in the broader theological construction of Mensch. In theology, the tree in the midst of the garden is linked with transgression, on the one end, and the overlap of illusion and reality as material components in man’s existence, on the other. In an interesting serendipity, Ars Electronica spaces are also named Gardens, which we found doubly amusing. More importantly, the work is in dialogue with the exhibition’s main foci; namely, architecture, malleability, and human scale, in ways that are detailed in Arian’s forthcoming, corresponding essays as part of the greater artwork’s public premiere.

Keep an eye out for an exciting announcement as well as further information on the fragment, modular media and the broader project.

Visit the exhibition until September 23 using the following link.