ST. GALLEN.- Do we believe in our devices? Network-based technologies such as ChatGPT or Google Maps have become our closest companions: They know every path and every answer. While these algorithmic intelligences increasingly elude our comprehension, we still believe they may bring salvation. Sometimes, their workings seem so inscrutable that we take them for magic. This ambivalent relationship is at the heart of the exhibition «algorithmic-mega- death-superspell.exe» by St.Gallen-based artist Aramis Navarro (*1991 in Zurich/CH).

In his most comprehensive solo exhibition to date, Navarro explores algorithms as media of revelation and contemporary oracles. Language runs through his kaleidoscopic work as both material and method: Spoken lines of code turn into poems, fragments of algorithms into neon signs, letters into holy figures. His practice of typing thoughts and observations with a typewriter on recycled paper sheets often lays the groundwork for his pieces. From this evergrowing archive, Navarro develops works such as his ongoing series II (Inflected Introspection): As an alchemist might, the artist casts his paper notes in resin and hangs them on the wall like precious amber inclusions. In his installation Ratking's hyper-sanctum, specifically developed for the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Navarro turns mirror-smooth surfaces into display like altar pieces. And in his series Defixio, the young artist draws on the milleniums old custom of curse tablets: inscriptions carved into thin sheets of lead, buried near graves or temples, intended to bewitch people. Navarro transfers such occult practices to aluminium plates, into which he incises fragments of fictitious algorithms. With such works, Aramis Navarro draws connections between magic rituals, notions of the sacred, and digital technologies. In this way, «algorithmic-mega-death- superspell.exe» questions the role which algorithms play in our current belief systems.

The exhibition marks a highlight in the 40th anniversary year of the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen. On Monday, 9 June 2025, we are hosting our anniversary celebration – exactly 40 years after the founding performance in the Volksbad St.Gallen on 9 June 1985. We are looking forward to performative interventions by Aramis Navarro, Julia Kubik, and PRICE, a food parcours by margaretha jüngling as well as a day rave and DJ sets by oblique (Valentina Stieger), Kappa-Effe (Larissa Kasper and Rosario Florio), and Haroon Mirza.

Aramis Navarro (*1991 in Zurich/CH) lives and works in St.Gallen/CH and Zurich/CH. Solo exhibitions (selection): «bibbidi bobbidi boo», Galerie Paul Hafner, St.Gallen/CH (2024); «never odd or even», ALTEFABRIK, Rapperswil/CH (2023); «if only the present is liquid», SOHO House x UNTITLED Basel, Basel/CH (2022); «temporary stigma», Hiltibold, St.Gallen/CH (2022); «time studies», Galerie Paul Hafner, St.Gallen/CH (2021). Group exhibitions (selection): «KSW VIIII», Museum Bickel, Walenstadt/CH (2024); Geiler Block, Himmel Helvetia, St.Gallen/CH (2023); «Ja Nein Vielleicht», Kunsthalle(n) Toggenburg, St.Peterszell/CH (2022); «Heimspiel», Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, St.Gallen/CH (2021); «There’s always tomorrow» (MFA- Abschluss), Löwenbräu, Zurich/CH (2021); «Kultur Verussen», Rathaus Kultur, Lichtensteig/CH (2021); «Salvaguardar», Teatro de Barrio Santo Domingo, Mexico City/MX (2019); «A(R)TM», Kulturcontainer SGKB – Performance, Wattwil & Walenstadt/CH (2018); «Aroma Musa», Kunst- & Projekthaus Torstrasse 111, Berlin DE (2018).