Richie Hawtin and Irish contemporary artist John Gerrard will come together at FVTVR in Paris for a 24-hour programme exploring the intersection of contemporary art, electronic music, and club culture. Running from noon on Saturday, October 24, through noon on Sunday, October 25, the event will take place during Art Basel Paris and form part of the Reference Festival programme.
The experience will bring together an artist conversation, Gerrard’s digital installation infin.1.iridescent.stream, and a MINUS+ night combining DJ sets with a performance of SPIRITS. Rather than treating the exhibition and music programme as separate experiences, the event connects both disciplines through a shared interest in time, repetition, and perception.
Gerrard’s simulations evolve in response to solar cycles, transforming digital imagery through gradual changes in light and color. Hawtin approaches similar ideas through sound, using repetition and subtle variations to reshape the listener’s experience. At FVTVR, these approaches will converge in an environment where audiences can move between observing the installation and experiencing electronic music collectively.
The collaboration brings together two artists whose careers have explored the relationship between technology and artistic expression from different perspectives.
Hawtin grew up in Windsor, Canada, across the river from Detroit, where the city’s electronic music scene helped shape his early experiments. As co-founder of Plus 8 and founder of M_nus, he became a defining figure in the development of minimal techno. Under his Plastikman alias, releases including Sheet One (1993) and Consumed (1998) established a sound built around tension, space, and subtle transformation.
His connection to contemporary art was highlighted in 2013 when he performed at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York at the invitation of Raf Simons. The performance later became EX, released the following year, further connecting his work in electronic music with the contemporary art world.
Gerrard, meanwhile, has become known for pioneering the use of real-time simulation in contemporary art. His digitally constructed environments explore the energy systems and industrial infrastructures that shape modern life, presenting complex subjects through continuously evolving virtual worlds.
His 2017 work Western Flag depicts a plume of black smoke repeatedly forming a flag above a former oil field, while Solar Reserve (2014) recreates a solar power plant alongside the movement of the sun and stars. His work is held in collections including Tate, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and the Fondation Louis Vuitton.
At the center of the FVTVR programme is infin.1.iridescent.stream, an installation running from noon until midnight on Saturday, October 24. The work features a D’Albertis python with iridescent scales inhabiting a digital environment. Each hour, the snake traces a figure of eight before bringing its mouth to its tail, forming an ouroboros, an ancient symbol associated with destruction and rebirth.
The simulation unfolds across an entire solar year, with its visual palette shifting between nocturnal blues and the reds and oranges of daylight. These gradual transformations place the passage of time at the center of the experience, allowing the installation to change continuously rather than remain visually fixed.
An original composition by Plastikman (Richie Hawtin) accompanies the installation, continuously recomposed through Bronze.ai. As the imagery and music evolve together, the work becomes an ongoing audiovisual experience in which neither element remains static.
The programme will open with a one-hour conversation between Hawtin and Gerrard, moderated by Marc Spiegler. The discussion will explore the ideas and creative processes behind their collaboration, offering audiences insight into the thinking that connects their respective practices.
By bringing together digital art, electronic composition, and club culture, the 24-hour programme at FVTVR creates a meeting point for two distinct artistic approaches. Taking place during Art Basel Paris, the event extends the exhibition beyond traditional viewing hours, inviting audiences to experience how sound, imagery, and the passage of time can shape a shared cultural space.