Itziar Barrio

Workshop Abstract:

Algorithms these days are everywhere—shaping our realities, jobs, and relationships.
When and how does coherence matter for AI? For us? How might we consider
incoherence as a politically powerful tool in a world of oppressive rationalization? And
how do we remind ourselves that, at the end of the day, it is we who give these systems
and each other meaning? In this workshop, interdisciplinary artist Itziar Barrio will
screen her recent films And Dan and (when some small metal is spun) (2022) and the
moment when you stop looking for them (2026) that analyze the influence of algorithms
on western logic while pursuing how poetry still offers a model of dissent. Barrio will
then take us into her process to set up our consideration of how her film and VR
projects use large language models to explore the potential in the different materialities
of corporate and non-corporate algorithms and specifically how she engages
incoherence as a means of resisting oppressive digital logic.

Lecture Abstract:

Interdisciplinary artist Itziar Barrio—who is recognized internationally for her artistic
interventions at the intersections of art, film, robotics, and AI—will present how her
poetic use of technology in research-based, long-term projects with diverse
collaborators works to open new futures by engaging in a practice of rewriting the
dominant narratives through which our societies, identities, and realities are
constructed. Barrio’s artist lecture will focus on her acclaimed Material trilogy (2016 –
ongoing) that comprises the film-based projects A Demon that Slips into Your Telescope
While You’re Dead Tired and Blocks the Light; ROBOTA MML; and Particle Matter that
are presented alongside sculptures, some of which are robotic. Barrio will lead us
through how the Material trilogy unfolds across multiple screens and objects through
speculative narratives and non-linear timelines to investigate the intersections between
technology, labor, identity, and matter. And Barrio will show how the Material trilogy
challenges the scripts of authority by poetically interlacing discourses between
scientists, technologists, fiction writers, actors, a bodybuilder, a robotics engineer, and a
composer, as well as non-human agents such as celestial bodies, robots, matter,
telescopes, and data. Discussion of the Material Trilogy lays the ground for Barrio’s
presentation of the recent film projects and Dan and (when some small metal is
spun) (2022) and the moment when you stop looking for them (2026) in which she
works in poetically experimental ways with AI and large language models.

Biography:

Itziar Barrio is an interdisciplinary artist producing long-term research-based projects that involve different agents and collaborators. By rewriting the dominant narratives through which our societies, identities, and realities are constructed, her work opens up new futures. Barrio has recently been awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2024 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellowship. Her survey exhibition was curated by Johanna Burton in 2018, and her monograph was published by SKIRA in 2023.Barrio’s work has been presented internationally at CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, the 14th Shanghai Biennale, Salt Istanbul, ONX Onassis Foundation, e-flux, PARTICIPANT INC, MACRO, MACBA, Museo del Banco de la República, Belgrade’s Contemporary Art Museum, and Havana Biennial. She has received awards from Brooklyn Arts Council, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, New York Foundation for the Arts and Ministry of Culture of Spain. Barrio is a New Museum’s NEW INC alumni and she was a recipient of the Spanish Academy in Rome Fellowship (2018-19). She has participated in residencies including Skowhegan and ISCP. Barrio’s work has been written about in Artforum, Art in America, The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, ART PAPERS and BOMB. She has been a seminar leader at Whitney’s ISP Program (2023/2024 & 2024/2025) and has lectured internationally most recently at New Museum, Harvard, Hunter College and the New School. She teaches at the School of Visual Arts and Sarah Lawrence College in NY. She is a critic at NYU Steinhardt and Rhode Island School of Design, RISD (2025 – 2026).