Jul 12–Oct 21

Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, China

Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing presents “Lying Sophia and Mocking Alexa,” curated by 2018 Hyundai Blue Prize winner Long Xinru. The show considers the humanoid robot Sophia and Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa, as symbols of humanity’s hopes and fears surrounding artificial intelligence. Conversations between Sophia and Alexa that are generated using customized chatbots resonate throughout the exhibition space, in which multimedia installations by 12 artists and collectives further tease out the economic, ethical, and emotional implications of humanity’s dependence on advanced technologies. The exhibition includes Christian “Mio” Loclair’s sculptural Narciss (2018), which is programmed to analyze itself, and Xin Liu’s Tear Set (2015), an installation that produces artificial tears, exploring the idea of simulated emotion.

Aug 31–Oct 26

IMA Belltower, Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Brisbane

Robert Andrew’s latest solo show, “Presence,” curated by Freja Carmichael, will bring a new kinetic installation by the First Nations artist to the Institute of Modern Art’s Belltower space at Brisbane’s Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts. Andrew is known for installations incorporating soil, rocks, earth pigments, and mechanical components, probing the relationship between contemporary technology and the environment. Works such as Country, Land, Soil, Time and Space (2017)—in which a programmed electromechanical system disturbs a column of stratified soil, causing it to gradually erode and crumble—investigate the processes that drive the transformation of landscapes, while alluding to Indigenous modes of understanding land and temporality. Additionally, as part of the show, Andrew will present a projection work on the façade of the Centre.

Sep 14–Nov 10

Multiple locations, Istanbul

The title of the 16th Istanbul Biennial, “The Seventh Continent,” refers to the 3.4 million-square-kilometer expanse of accumulated detritus and plastic waste floating in the Pacific Ocean. Curated by art scholar Nicolas Bourriaud, the Biennial will gather 57 artists and collectives from 26 countries to address the impacts of the so-called Anthropocene on our planet, as well as the fragmentation of global society amid the rise of nationalist, isolationist politics. Thirty-eight new commissions will be unveiled across the Pera Museum, Büyükada Island, and an as-yet-unconfirmed third location. Included in the line-up are artists Güneş Terkol and Güçlü Öztekin—who will create an outdoor “meeting place” themed around recycling—in addition to video artist Chang En-Man and multimedia artist Haegue Yang.

Sep 14–Nov 17

Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia

Multidisciplinary artist Haroon Mirza will make his Australian debut with his solo exhibition “The Construction of an Act” at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). Presented in association with the Melbourne International Arts Festival, the show will include Mirza’s early sculptural assemblages made from found objects, alongside more recent sound-based and multimedia works that experiment with space and perception, and explore moral and political themes. A highlight is Mirza’s newly commissioned project, entailing a specially constructed residency studio at ACCA in which, over the course of the exhibition’s run, invited collaborators across the disciplines of music, dance, art, and design will develop a new performance, to premiere live at the gallery on October 8. 

Sep 18–Dec 29

Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, United States

The University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art will mount the first solo US presentation of Hong Kong artist and composer Samson Young. “Silver Moon or Golden Star, Which Will You Buy of Me?” takes as its departure point the utopian notion of progress embodied by the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. The exhibition will feature three animated music videos—The Highway is Like a Lion’s Mouth (2018), Da Da Company (2019), and Houses of Tomorrow (2019)—that form a “song cycle” exploring responses to societal change. Also on display will be archival materials from the fair and Young’s “sound drawings:” visual interpretations of audio stimuli. 

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