Mónica Rikić
Mónica Rikić is an artist merging technology and philosophy through art, creating technological artifacts that are not driven by functionality or productivity, but by the desire to build critical devices that provoke collective thinking and discussion
Participations
Psychoflage (2025)
Selected Artworks
Somoure
La caixa de música infinita
Hipertèlia
Especies I, II y III
Metamàquina
La màquina que juga sola
New Home of Mind
Mother of Robots
The Inflovable Machine
Data gossiping robots
Links
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Bio
Her proposals merge technology and philosophy through art, creating technological artifacts that are not driven by functionality or productivity, but by the desire to build critical devices that provoke collective thinking and discussion. Formally, her practice involves producing weird robots and handmade electronic objects, which perform different concepts from her research, presenting themselves as theatrical devices. Through these devices, she aims to offer experiences that encourage alternative ways of thinking about the forms of life, social relations, and subjectivities that emerge in an increasingly technologically mediated society.
Her projects have been featured in numerous art festivals and institutions around the world, including Ars Electronica (AT), Manifesta Biennial, ISEA, Creative Tech Week (NY), Robotronica (AUS), Loop Festival (SP), Laboral (SP), FILE (BR), CCCB (SP), Arts Santa Mònica (SP), and La Capella (SP), among others.
She has received several prestigious awards, such as the Catalan Culture Award in 2021, and recognitions from the Japan Media Arts Festival, AMAZE Berlin, the Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition in Atlanta, as well as a Leonardo Grant from the BBVA Foundation. Her artistic residencies include participation in the S+T+ARTS program, Technoculture, Arts and Games in Montreal, the European Media Artists in Residence Exchange (EMARE-EMAP) at QUT (Australia), Hexagram (Montreal), Medialab Prado (Madrid), Platohedro (Medellín), and Etopía (Zaragoza), as part of the European ARTificial Intelligence Lab program.
Her works are part of the National Contemporary Art Collection of Catalonia, .NewArt {collection;} and Colección DKV.
Installation: Psychoflage | Responsive Dreams 2025
↑ Click on the image below to play the video
Psychoflage is a large-format, multisensory interactive installation that transforms space into a world of dreams and psychedelic fantasy. It is made up of twenty inflatable sculptures equipped with handcrafted electronic interactive systems that control their fans and lights.
The work proposes an alternative way to connect with cognitive technologies. Instead of presenting an imaginary dominated by metaphors of productivity, speed and competition, which are usually associated with these technologies, the piece invites us to approach them in a calm and relaxed way, offering an experience close to spirituality. The slow and breathing effect transmitted by the floating sculptures refers to meditation and relaxation practices.
Based on their basic physiognomy, their code and their emerging autonomous development, the devices simulate, through physical-digital behaviors, processes that invite us to identify them as sentient organisms. The algorithmic and mechanical structure of the artistic object itself is presented to the public as a dramaturgical device that expresses its own way of existing.
The devices, interconnected with each other through an internal network that allows them to coordinate, generate different movements as they inflate and deflate, giving the sensation of breathing organically. Their internal light accompanies these movements, creating various interactive lighting effects.
The piece allows the public to walk underneath it or even lie down quietly to observe it from below, promoting immersion and the sensation of breathing that the experience aims to convey.
