The industrial halls of Berghain will soon be the site of Pierre Huyghe’s first artistic foray into quantum physics, with a new commission from the LAS Art Foundation’s program. The large-scale project, launched in partnership with Hartwig Art Foundation, opens January 23, 2026, and runs until March 8, marking Huyghe’s first solo institutional presentation in the German capital.
Though many details remain under wraps, Huyghe’s upcoming installation is said to revolve around uncertainty as both subject and method, drawing on quantum experiments and incorporating film, sound, dust, vibrations, and light. Concepts that have long fascinated Huyghe—indeterminacy, autonomy, and systems thinking, as well as the more-than-human—resonate naturally with aspects of quantum logic.
Halle am Berghain. Photo: Stefanie Loos AFP via Getty Images.
The monumental two-story halls of Halle am Berghain, a former thermal power station from the 1950s, provide a fitting backdrop. Huyghe is known for creating immersive environments that pulse with unpredictability, which are often referred to as “ecosystems.”
“Pierre is one of the leading artists of our generation,” said Bettina Kames, the director of LAS, in a video call. “He is wholly devoted to his projects—perfection, detail, and conceptual rigor guide everything he does.”
Few who saw it will forget his outdoor installation at Documenta 13, (2011–12), where he transformed a forgotten industrial site into a microcosm of autonomous life: a bee colony thrived on a statue, while a white greyhound with a pink leg wandered through the landscape. At the Pinault Collection’s Punta della Dogana in Venice last year, for his major work , visitors navigated a dark, cavernous installation of A.I.-inflected films, performances, and living marine life—an exploration of the boundary between human and nonhuman. The move toward quantum systems, with their inherent uncertainty and instability, is a logical continuation of this trajectory.
Pierre Huyghe Liminal (temporary title) (2024–ongoing). Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Marian Goodman Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, Esther Schipper, and TARO NASU. © Pierre Huyghe, by SIAE 2023.
“At a moment when quantum and A.I. technologies are beginning to converge, this project not only stages their philosophical and perceptual implications, but also asks what worlds might be conceived of—impossible, unstable, or yet to come,” the institution said via email.
In a statement, Huyghe described the new work as “a hybrid creature, an infinite membrane carved by void… an observer witnessing the ambiguous nature of the entity, its monstrosity.” The accompanying film, he wrote, “portrays an inexistent being, a soulscape, a radical outside,” aiming to turn states of uncertainty into a cosmos.
Notably, the project stems from a collaboration with quantum physicist Tommaso Calarco, co-author of the , which sets Europe’s agenda for quantum research. “Luckily, Calarco is an art lover,” Kames noted. Calarco’s discussions with the artist have informed Huyghe’s experiments with quantum systems “as raw material,” transforming quantum properties into perceptible experiences. “The project with Huyghe is at such a high level,” added Kames. “It is one of the most important projects we have ever done at LAS.”
Pierre Huyghe, 2025, video still. Commissioned by LAS Art Foundation and Hartwig Art Foundation. Courtesy the artist. © Pierre Huyghe, 2025.
LAS Art Foundation, a nomadic institution bridging art, science, and technology, launched the Sensing Quantum program to explore the implications of quantum computing and theory. Laure Prouvost’s inaugural project earlier this year, which examined audio and visual manifestations quantum noise, in an artistic collaboration with Google Quantum A.I. won the S+T+ARTS award from the E.U. Commission.
In addition to ambitious visual art projects, includes endeavors with composers, a learning program, and a symposium coming up this month, all of which aims to illuminate some of the most elusive principles and hard-to-grasp elements of quantum mechanics through direct experience. Huyghe’s project will certainly mark an apex of it.
After its launch in Berlin, the presentation will travel to Amsterdam in 2026, presented by the Hartwig Art Foundation, which is currently creating a brick-and-mortar museum. Beatrix Ruf, the director of the Hartwig Art Foundation, said she is “thrilled and grateful” to be involved in this new chapter in Huyghe’s work with the LAS Art Foundation, and that the “inspiring collaboration is now opening up exciting avenues into the forward-looking world of quantum.”
Sensing Quantum
Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com
