SIMULACRA Chapter 3
Performance with live concert by Ai fen
In the summer of 2024, in preparation for Nika Kupyrova’s exhibition “Simulacra” in Lentos Kunstmuseum, the artist talked to musician Ai fen about dreams, omens and the sensation of losing grip on reality, symptomatic of today’s generations’ excessive exposure to digital media. As they found themseves unable to fully separate their digital and physical experiences, Kupyrova proposed asking the same questions about this digitally enhanced reality as they would about the off-line one: What is consciousness? Are coincidences real? Are choices we make actually ours? At the time, in trenches of early motherhood, both artists’ grip on reality was fragile as is, with dreams running dangerously close to the waking states and encouraging the associative, kaleidoscopic final form of the “Simulacra” project. As a result of this conversation, Ai fen would go on to compose the sound piece for Nika Kupyrova’s video installation, a polyphony of human voice and its digital mirrors.
“Simulacra Chapter 3”, an intervention in the Secession garden, was a continuation of this dialogue with a live concert by Ai fen punctuated by performative entries. A performer wearing one of the headpieces from “Simulacra” digital animist cosmology recited from constructed dream diaries that merged real dreams of the two artists with the ones from mythology, literary modernism and internet culture.
Performance with live concert by Ai fen
In the summer of 2024, in preparation for Nika Kupyrova’s exhibition “Simulacra” in Lentos Kunstmuseum, the artist talked to musician Ai fen about dreams, omens and the sensation of losing grip on reality, symptomatic of today’s generations’ excessive exposure to digital media. As they found themseves unable to fully separate their digital and physical experiences, Kupyrova proposed asking the same questions about this digitally enhanced reality as they would about the off-line one: What is consciousness? Are coincidences real? Are choices we make actually ours? At the time, in trenches of early motherhood, both artists’ grip on reality was fragile as is, with dreams running dangerously close to the waking states and encouraging the associative, kaleidoscopic final form of the “Simulacra” project. As a result of this conversation, Ai fen would go on to compose the sound piece for Nika Kupyrova’s video installation, a polyphony of human voice and its digital mirrors.
“Simulacra Chapter 3”, an intervention in the Secession garden, was a continuation of this dialogue with a live concert by Ai fen punctuated by performative entries. A performer wearing one of the headpieces from “Simulacra” digital animist cosmology recited from constructed dream diaries that merged real dreams of the two artists with the ones from mythology, literary modernism and internet culture.
Musician: Ai fen
Performer: Anabel Scheffold
Makeup: Dragana Suljic
Objects and direction: Nika Kupyrova
Exhibition views at Secession as a part of the summer outdoor program Tuesday@Secession (Vienna, 2026)
Photography by Natascha Unkart (performance)
and Katharina Liatskaia (backstage)
