Metahaven's work, at the intersection of design, film, textiles, installation and writing, is deeply connected to the internet and its geopolitics, combining research with experimental and exuberant aesthetics.

Founded in 2007 by Vinca Kruk and Daniel van der Velden, the collective has been exploring the fundamental role of poetry for several years, both cinematographically and visually, as well as literarily and cognitively. Their recent works use poetry to establish a link between art and science, as in the film Capture (2022-), or to question the relationship between language and emotion, as in The Feeling Sonnets (Transitional Object) (2024). This film is inspired by a collection of poems by Eugene Ostashevsky. Metahaven recently co-wrote Latent Spacecraft: Brains, GANs, Finnegans (2026) with Nina Beguš, Gašper Beguš and Riccardo Petrini. This project combines an exploration of the unobserved vector space of neural network language models with a reinterpretation of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.

Metahaven's lecture will focus on the versatility of art and design, with a particular interest in poetry as an everyday art form capable of challenging the predictability of the language we use.

The event is organised in partnership with the École nationale supérieure d'arts de Paris Cergy.

Metahaven is an Amsterdam-based artist collective whose work comprises filmmaking, design, and writing. A central research topic in their work is the foundational role of poetry in an age of AI. In this framework, they recently published Latent Spacecraft: Brains, GANs, Finnegans with Nina Beguš, Gašper Beguš, and Riccardo Petrini, which combines an exploration of the inner latent space of neural network models with a reinterpretation of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. Metahaven’s film works include The Feeling Sonnets (Transitional Object) (2024), Chaos Theory (2021), Hometown (2018), and Information Skies (2016, nominated for the European Film Awards). Metahaven have presented solo exhibitions at MoMA PS1, New York; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; ICA London; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Asakusa, Tokyo; Izolyatsia, Kyiv; e-flux, New York, and State of Concept Athens, among others. They have participated in group exhibitions at Artists Space, New York; the Gwangju Biennale; the Sharjah Biennial; Ghost:2561, Bangkok, and many others. Their films have been screened at IFFR, Docs Against Gravity, CPH:DOX, the Museo Reina Sofía, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, among others. As designers, Metahaven have worked or are working with Balenciaga; Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, Almaty; Valiz, Amsterdam; Sternberg Press, London, and many others. They have created activist design for Sea Shepherd (2016), Independent Diplomat (2014), WikiLeaks (2010). Their work is in several international museum and private collections, including the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Sharjah Art Foundation, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Victoria & Albert Museum, M HKA, and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Metahaven are artistic advisors at Rijksakademie, affiliate researchers at Antikythera, and heads of department at the Geo-Design MA at DAE. 
 

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