Janne Schimmel

What first struck us when discovering the work of Janne Schimmel was his way of highlighting the beauty and sculptural quality of hardware. Through subtle aesthetic interventions, hardware becomes an interface between the physical world and the digital realm. This interest in modding sits at the core of his practice and resonates with broader movements in digital culture, from the right-to-repair movement to communities pushing back against digital enclosures and built-in obsolescence.

Curated together with the artist, this exhibition presents Schimmel’s modded consoles as sculptural vessels for games created by guest artists from the homebrew community — creatives making games outside the industry and outside its norms. Together they retroactively diversify the libraries of consoles once considered obsolete, activating existing hardware rather than creating demand for new ones. The exhibition brings together works by Paula Garcia Sans, B-Complex, FLUIDSPACE, Vinzenz Sombray, Philip Ullman, Toni Catino, astoryinpieces, and Grenhunterr, and opens Friday 20 March at 19:00, running until 10 May, with two workshops by the artist in April.