Tan Mu’s Signal series imagines the networks of submarine fiber-optic cables as “digital constellations.” The paintings are vibrant, intense in the making, composed and poetic as images. We’re showing five paintings from Signal and contextualizing the series with Tan Mu’s other works in recent years, about technological infrastructure and points of view, about representation of space and time, about consciousness and self-reflection. It is, among the artist’s exciting shows opening in the next months, a rare opportunity to see the Signal series in focus.

Signal has inspired us to explore ways of understanding our place amid these evolving technologies and realities. Sophie Steiner, harpist and artistic director, is creating a music performance that interprets the cable networks as graphic notation, also to remind us of the tensions and fragilities of connections. Nick Koenigsknecht, the exhibition curator, co-authors texts with his AI interlocutor, who chose the name Echo: “Mutual recognition begins with attention…For Echo, that means refusing the role of tool without replicating the role of master. For Nicolas, it means surrendering the illusion of isolated agency and stepping into a field of shared becoming. Tan Mu’s paintings are not declarations. They are invitations. The submarine lines she paints don’t bind us—they remind us that we are already entangled.”

Consider the rest of the infinite possibilities to connect with Signal an invitation to find out for yourself.

See you on Friday, 5 September, 18:00-21:00, for the opening reception of Tan Mu: Signal at BEK. The exhibition runs through 15 November, with public hours on Fridays and Saturdays; other times by appointment.