PUBLICATIONS
EDEN.exe: When Paradise Becomes an Algorithm
From July 3 to 7, 2026, during Germany’s largest independent contemporary art festival, 48 Stunden Neukölln in Berlin, the international curatorial project EDEN.exe was presented.
The project featured the participation of Julia Sysalova, founder of the School of Art Communication, along with the School’s graduates, who presented their works as part of the festival’s official program.
The project brought together artists working with installation, painting, conceptual practices, and experimental formats.
The participants included our graduates from different countries: Anna Kapyrina, Dina Zakmane, Irina Metz, Julia Flit, Natalya Raduenz, Natalya Ponomareva, Nelya Akimova, Oxana Akopov, Veera Romanoff, and Viktor Vinichenko.
The exhibition project EDEN.exe explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping our understanding of authorship, curatorship, and the very notion of an ideal world. At its core is the image of a contemporary Eden that no longer exists as a utopia, but instead transforms into a constantly evolving system shaped by both humans and algorithms.
The project was presented as part of the 48 Stunden Neukölln festival in Berlin, within a special section supported by a grant.
Its curatorial concept was developed through a collaboration between the artificial intelligence Noah33 and curator Julia Sysalova (AICA).
Rather than using AI as a mere auxiliary tool, the exhibition proposed considering it as a полноценный participant in the curatorial process—capable of influencing the selection of artworks, their interpretation, and the construction of the exhibition narrative.
Within the project, artists, curator, and algorithm become equal participants in a shared process. Artificial intelligence does not simply analyze artworks, but enters into a dialogue with the curator, offering its own interpretations and unexpected connections between works.
EDEN.exe raises questions that are becoming increasingly relevant in the age of artificial intelligence:
- who is the author of an artistic statement,
- where the boundary lies between human and machine thinking,
- and how new technologies are transforming the processes of creating and perceiving art.
More about “EDEN” project
To learn more about the exhibition and its works, you can explore via the link
The project took place at CANK (Kulturnetzwerk Neukölln e.V.) and became part of the official program of the 48 Stunden Neukölln festival, which since 1999 has annually brought together hundreds of artists, curators, and tens of thousands of visitors, remaining one of Germany’s leading platforms for contemporary art.
Among the distinguished guests was the Mayor of Neukölln, Martin Hikel. More than 3,000 people visited the exhibition on the opening day alone.
One of the key highlights of the exhibition was the participation of American artist Robert Vargas, who flew in from Los Angeles for one day at Yulia’s invitation to attend the opening as a special guest of the project.
Robert Vargas is known for his murals and his “Portraits of the World,” created during live sessions. As part of his performance at the opening, he painted a portrait of one of the guests.
His work became an important reminder that even within a project exploring the role of artificial intelligence in contemporary art, the human gesture, immediate presence, and the uniqueness of the artist’s perspective retain their particular value.