Bitcoin Mining and Field Recordings of Ethnic Minorities (Extreme Presence Programme)

A speculative journey through the history of technology, infrastructure, ecology and finance, where these meet anthropology and science fiction’s global imaginaries. During a series of field trips, the artist observed that a large number of bitcoin mining sites are located inside abandoned hydroelectric plants in the rural terrains of Western China, an area also home to many minority groups. This show is part of Extreme Presence. Extreme Presence gathers artists, thinkers, technologists and practitioners across two days of talks, performances, interventions and workshops. It continues and expands the research and R&D activities of the future Hartwig Museum (opening 2028), exploring devotional currents in contemporary art, digital technology, ecological and theological thought, alongside knowledge traditions that have long held presence and relation at the centre of practice.