While Halle am Berghain, one of Berlin’s industrial giants, is usually associated with the seismic tremors of techno music, in the winter of 2026 it opens its doors to a far deeper and more mysterious vibration. Pierre Huyghe—who continually expands the boundaries of contemporary art through biology, technology, and speculative fiction—invites us with his new masterpiece “Liminals,” a major commission by LAS Art Foundation and Hartwig Art Foundation, to that “threshold” point where reality has not yet been measured and possibilities overlap one another. Running from January 23 to March 8, 2026, this monumental installation brings together film, sound, light, and physical vibrations to transform the abstract logic of quantum physics into a direct sensory experience.
The Anatomy of Uncertainty: The Dance of “Maybes”
At the center of what Huyghe describes as a “modern myth” lies the formation process of a faceless, humanoid figure. Yet this figure attempts to come into being on a plane entirely outside our familiar perception of time and space. According to the artist, this is a radical space where beginning and end, inside and outside, blur into one another and matter exists in ceaseless dance. As viewers, we witness this figure’s escape from being trapped in a single state of reality and its simultaneous effort to experience multiple modes of existence at once.
Here, Huyghe transforms one of the core principles of quantum mechanics—superposition—into an aesthetic allegory. Just as a quantum system holds all possible states simultaneously until measured, Liminals holds the viewer in that critical second when perception has not yet stabilized. This “threshold” state, where the boundary between inner and outer worlds melts away, carries a “radical strangeness” for human subjectivity.
Resonance of Atoms: The Intersection of Art and Quantum Computing
Huyghe has not merely drawn inspiration from scientific concepts; he has directly integrated the outputs of quantum systems into the production process of the work. Long-term dialogues with renowned quantum physicist Tommaso Calarco and philosopher Tobias Rees form the technical backbone of the exhibition.
One of the most striking aspects of the project is the use of Pasqal’s 100-qubit quantum computer—in collaboration with researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich—to simulate the vibrations of matter depicted in the film. Calarco likens the process to playing a string instrument: “plucking the atom arrays of the computer as if striking strings, and listening to their echo…” These atomic resonances are translated into the sound design and physical vibrations of the exhibition space, allowing us to feel quantum properties directly in our nervous system.
Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Noise
Huyghe’s technological innovation does not stop there. Certain scenes in the film were generated using a specialized artificial intelligence model trained on quantum noise. This approach reveals how images take shape through randomness and complexity, while aiming to depict a world that lies beyond human ontology. The fictional universe Huyghe creates germinates in that unstable zone between chaos and order.
Continuing his practice from his life in Santiago de Chile, Huyghe conceives the exhibition not as a static object but as a living organism—one that learns, evolves, and is affected by surrounding conditions over time. Liminals possesses a permeable structure that appears indifferent to the viewer yet shares the same spatiotemporal plane with their presence.
Sensing Quantum: New Frontiers of Perception
As the second major chapter of LAS Art Foundation’s “Sensing Quantum” program, this exhibition continues a vision that has already been awarded the European Commission’s “S+T+ARTS: Grand Prize – Innovative Collaboration.” By inviting us into a “non-human” perspective, Huyghe poses the crucial question: Is it possible to nachempfinden (empathically feel/understand) such an indeterminate and multiple reality?
Echoing between the concrete walls of Halle am Berghain, this “spiritual landscape” does not merely ask us to look at an artwork—it compels us to reimagine what reality is and what it might become. The monstrous yet deeply empathetic figure created by Huyghe stands as a symbol both of longing for the impossible and of the aesthetic cosmos we find within uncertainty.
Exhibition Details
Artist: Pierre Huyghe
Exhibition Title: Liminals
Venue: Halle am Berghain, Berlin
Dates: January 23 — March 8, 2026
Curatorial Collaboration: LAS Art Foundation & Hartwig Art Foundation
