EBB & Neïl Beloufa: Pandemic Pandemonium – An Immersive Exhibition Exploring Digital Realities and Crypto Art

This exhibition is an immersive game where physical, fictional, and digital worlds merge. Visitors interact with 'hosts' and engage in game-like activities, creating their own digital art, and exploring themes of global pandemics, crypto economies, and new forms of community in the digital age.

Pandemic Pandemonium, by EBB & Neïl Beloufa, is an exhibition structured as an immersive game, blending physical, fictional, and digital realities. Visitors engage with three 'hosts' by scanning QR codes with their phones, allowing them to control the hosts and have them speak and post on a Discord channel. The exhibition requires a 'game ticket' (€5) and involves participating in various stations like 'Hand of Vengeance' and 'Tax Roulette'. Visitors can create and mint their own digital art as NFTs, potentially acquiring them via the platform objkt.com and the cryptocurrency Tezos. The exhibition draws answers for quiz questions from video episodes titled 'Screen Talk' and features interactive elements like 'Cheat Island' with thematic floor motifs. The work critically examines social and political developments, including inequality, venture capitalism, the crypto economy, and algorithm-dominated internet structures, while also playing with the utopian ideals of Web3. It continues Beloufa's exploration of artistic fields, institutions, media, and technologies, particularly influenced by the pandemic's impact and the shift towards virtual artistic alternatives. The production company EBB, founded by Beloufa, specializes in cultural experiences using Web3 solutions like blockchain and NFTs. The exhibition links the theme of the pandemic and global management with the exploration of new community forms emerging within the decentralized internet (Web3). The video installation 'Screen Talk' (originally from 2014) was reworked into mini-episodes for an online game during the pandemic. The 'Master Hosts' are interactive sculptures with dual identities in physical space and as crypto constructs, designed to be controlled via smartphone, with Twitter and Discord accounts, and conceived as Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). This expansion into digital realms aims to reach younger audiences through gaming and explore new communal forms.

A 'game ticket' costing €5 is required to participate in the exhibition's game elements and is available at the ticket counter or shop. Purchasing this ticket supports the project and allows for participation in winning prizes such as original screen prints or NFTs. Information on acquiring the ticket is provided, emphasizing visitor participation for the full experience and to fund prize production costs.