For the catalogue of Signal, curator Nick Koenigsknecht writes,

To be local is not a matter of origin. It’s a matter of attention,

Of intention,

Of how we choose to show up.

To be local is to participate, to be in relation, to stay proximate, whether digitally or physically, through care and affinity, rather than claim.

To the “locals, everywhere,” join the closing reception for Tan Mu: Signal from anywhere, with a virtual tour and conversations.

RSVP required.

Friday, 14 November, 3pm CET (10pm Beijing; 6pm Dubai; 2pm London; 9am New York).

Tan Mu’s ongoing Signal series is a sustained artistic investigation into the invisible architectures of global communication. Grounded in infrastructure, media geography, technological poetics, and human perception, the series transforms submarine fiber-optic networks into symbolic “digital constellations”—bridging abstraction and representation, emotion and system. Mu reimagines these hidden infrastructures not merely as technical constructs but as vessels of collective memory and human connection. By fusing planetary systems with individual and cultural histories, Signal creates poetic diagrams of connection and rupture, mapping time, scale, and collective presence.

BEK hosts the programming around Tan Mu’s Signal series, drawing on the artist’s longtime dedication to identifying, documenting, and interpreting historic moments in science and technology. The programs respond to Signal’s visual and conceptual complexity in situating one’s being in the world on a cosmic scale and aim to build a network of artists and scholars for collaborative multimedia and cross-disciplinary works and events.