BIX media facade: Radical hope - Flavia Mazzanti

Beyond My Skin by Flavia Mazzanti has been selected as the winning project of the BIX competition and will be presented on the media façade of Kunsthaus Graz. The project explores the interaction of two bodies in the physical-digital space, where closeness and intimacy can be experienced across distance.

Installation on the façade and in the foyer

On the façade, the installation alternates between frozen moments of encounter and flowing streams of light and energy, translating the search for connection and exchange within the urban environment of Graz.

At the same time, a mixed-reality installation in the foyer invites visitors to engage with the choreography and the dancing bodies in the digital space and to become part of this virtual encounter themselves.

Background of the project
Beyond My Skin is a long-term artistic project by multimedia artist Flavia Mazzanti (*1994 in Italy/Brazil, based in Vienna and São Paulo). It investigates the expansion of spaces of technological-analog hybridity.

The project began as an interactive installation and live performance and deals with the concept of touch in the physical-digital space. Using motion-capture technology, performers were transformed in real time into abstract digital configurations and have since been presented in various formats: as interactive installation, live performance, and video installation.

Development and previous presentations

The live performance premiered in May 2023 at the AIL – Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab in Vienna. Since then, the project has been shown at venues including esc medien kunst labor in Graz as part of Steirischer Herbst 2023, and in March 2024 at Deep Space 8K at the Ars Electronica Center.

Building on this, the project expanded into new dimensions through mixed-reality interventions in public space in Vienna, Tokyo, and São Paulo. It was later adapted for exhibitions at international festivals and institutions such as the MESH Festival in Basel, the Festival der Zukunft at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, and the CONTRAST Gallery in Tokyo.

The BIX façade as a new stage

On the media façade of Kunsthaus Graz, the two bodies now merge with the organic architecture, filling the protruding rounded forms and extending the dialogue between digital and analog bodies directly into the urban space.

The digital shadows of the figures—approaching, overlapping, displacing, dissolving, and condensing—create an associative image of merging digital and analog realities that we all encounter in everyday life.

Jury decision and relevance

The jury selected the work for its immediacy. In the spirit of “radical hope,” it holds the potential to bring digital and analog worlds into harmony in an open and productive way. This becomes instantly comprehensible through the dissolving human figure and invites audiences—both on the façade and in the foyer—to consciously experience virtual and analog worlds.