Sahej Rahal

Sahej Rahal 
Finalforest.exe, 2021 
HD video. 8:59 min 

The work was produced with the friendly support of Akademie der Künste & E.ON foundation / Human-Machine fellowship by the JUNGE AKADEMIE & VISIT 

Description: 
In finalforest.exe we find ourselves amidst an unfolding cybernetic ritual. Deep within a virtual forest, a shamanic figure converses with sentient AI programs, whispering remnants of these lost pasts to AI-creatures that wander seemingly infinite digital forests. Mixing folklore, urban legends, archaeological records, conspiracies, and science fiction, “Finalforest.exe” interrogates mythic narratives of disease, demons and state power, that preserve the caste system as the core anatomy of Indian society. 

Location: Gallery MMB, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai
 

About the artist

Sahej Rahal is primarily a storyteller. He weaves together fact and fiction, to create mythological worlds unfolding within the present. These myth-worlds take the shape of sculptures, performances, films, paintings, installations, and AI simulation programs where indeterminate beings begin to emerge from the cracks between the real and the imagined. Rahal's participation in group and solo exhibitions includes the Liverpool Biennial, the Kochi Biennale, the Vancouver Biennale, the MACRO Museum Rome, Kadist SF, ACCA Melbourne, CCA Glasgow. He is the recipient of the Cove Park/Henry Moore Fellowship, Akademie Schloss Solitude Fellowship, the Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation Installation Art Grant, and most recently the Digital Earth fellowship, and Junge Akademie Human Machine fellowship.