Extreme Presence: Short Films Programme

Free artists' films and videos at Hartwig Proxy, part of Extreme Presence. The video room shows a selection of short works alongside the Hartwig Art Foundation's gathering on technology, consciousness and devotion in Amsterdam.

From Wednesday 14 to Sunday 25 October 2026 the video room at Parnassusweg 213 presents a selection of artists' films and videos during public opening hours. No ticket is needed.

What forms does presence take when the world and its technologies exceed what can be explained, known or felt? How might we re-imagine human, non-human and synthetic life on this planet today? Extreme Presence gathers artists, thinkers and practitioners for talks, performances, screenings and workshops, approaching presence as a practice, a problem and a responsibility. One strand concerns a "devotional turn" in contemporary culture: how theology, mysticism and contemplative traditions offer new ways to navigate planetary and cultural instability. Another looks at the many histories of technology itself, from Traditional Ecological Knowledge to interspecies communication, and what they open up for those working between art and computation.

Following the Art in the Metaverse and Digital Cosmos conferences (2023 to 2025), Extreme Presence continues the research and development of the future Hartwig Museum. It is curated by Lucia Pietroiusti, Head of Research & Emergence at the Hartwig Art Foundation, with Memory Gems (Leonardo Dellanoce and Arthur Steiner).

The weekend programme, 23 to 25 October

Friday 23 October

• 16:00 at Cinema The Pulse: Liu Chuang, Bitcoin Mining and Field Recordings of Ethnic Minorities (2018, 40 minutes), a speculative journey through technology, infrastructure, ecology and finance, prompted by bitcoin mines housed in abandoned hydroelectric plants in rural Western China.
• 18:00 to 21:00 at Hartwig Proxy: opening evening, with a welcome by Beatrix Ruf and an introduction by Lucia Pietroiusti; the launch of Mirror Tarot: A Machine for Constructing Stories (Silver Press), a lecture-performance by Sarah Shin and Sammy Lee; and Devotional Technologies, presentations and conversation on theology, mysticism and artificial intelligence with Bogna Konior (online), Lawrence Lek and Lukáš Likavčan.

Saturday 24 October

• 11:00 at Hartwig Proxy: Technologies of Being, on contemplative practice and non-human consciousness in plant worlds and cosmic space, with Prathima Muniyappa, Sumana Roy (online), Jeremy Shaw and Aliya Say, moderated by Lucia Pietroiusti.
• 14:00 at Hartwig Proxy: Technologies of Interrelation, on the philosophies and ethics of interrelation, with Elizabeth LaPensée (online), Fainos Mangena, Marilou Schultz and Lua Vollaard, moderated by Diana Campbell.
• 16:00 at Cinema The Pulse: Jeremy Shaw, Quantification Trilogy (Quickeners, 2014; Liminals, 2017; I Can See Forever, 2018), introduced by the artist.
• 19:00 at Cinema The Pulse: Mark Leckey, Batter My ❤️ 3-Personed G0D, a lecture-performance that runs from a medieval prophecy through apocalyptic visions, the 20th-century counterculture, Y2K and the singularity.

Sunday 25 October

• 11:00 at Hartwig Proxy: Prophetic Technologies, on art, medieval entities and autonomous technologies, with Daniel Blanga Gubbay, Mark Leckey and Christopher Kulendran Thomas, moderated by Ivan Cheng.
• 11:00 to 14:00 and 15:00 to 18:00 at Parnassus 212: weaving workshop with Marilou Schultz, joining centuries-old weaving techniques with contemporary technology (ages 13 and up, booking required).
• 14:00 at Hartwig Proxy: Technologies of Cultivation, on growing ecosystems for artistic research and development, with Haley Albert, Xin Liu, William Morgan and Aishwarya Khanduja, moderated by Leonardo Dellanoce and Arthur Steiner.
• 16:00 at Cinema The Pulse: Tabita Rezaire, Mamelles Ancestrales (2019, 61 minutes), on the megaliths of The Gambia and Senegal, with an online introduction by the artist.
• 18:00 to 21:00 at Hartwig Proxy: An Evening of Extreme Presence, live readings of poetry and fiction on technology, health, sensuality and devotion by Taylor Le Melle, Holly Pester and Ariana Reines.

Weekend events take place at Hartwig Proxy (Parnassusweg 213), Cinema The Pulse (Hildegard von Bingenstraat 4) and the pop-up space Parnassus 212 (Parnassusweg 212), all in Amsterdam Zuid, and can be attended individually. Talks and performances cost EUR 10 (EUR 8 reduced), screenings at Cinema The Pulse EUR 5, and the workshop EUR 10 (EUR 8 reduced). Tickets are sold through Weticket; the short films programme in the video room is free. Full details are on the Hartwig Art Foundation programme page.