© Felix Lenz
© Felix Lenz / Jaakko Taavila
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Commissioned by the MAK and funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport, research-led artist and filmmaker Felix Lenz, a graduate of the University of Applied Arts, represents Austria at the 24th International Exhibition of the Triennale di Milano under the theme of “Inequalities”.
13.5.2025—9.11.2025
Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy
With the mixed-media installation Soft Image, Brittle Grounds Austria’s contribution critically explores the entanglements of technology, ecology, power, and inequality.
Departing from his 30-minute essay film Brute Force [Exhibition Cut] (2025) Felix Lenz investigates the material and political implications of technology and knowledge extractivism, capturing—through a queer lens—how our world’s complexity collides with the simplified rationalities of the digital age.
The shrinking shores of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, USA, serve as a central metaphor for the hidden infrastructures of digital technologies, whose thirst for resources increasingly drains the land, leaving behind a landscape that has become an archive of its own transformation.
The newly developed 3-channel video installation Valley of the Heart’s Delight (2025) expands on these themes, referencing the indigenous past of Silicon Valley, now buried far beneath corporate headquarters, whose sleek façades conceal innate power imbalances.
Departing from his 30-minute essay film Brute Force [Exhibition Cut] (2025) Felix Lenz investigates the material and political implications of technology and knowledge extractivism, capturing—through a queer lens—how our world’s complexity collides with the simplified rationalities of the digital age.
The shrinking shores of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, USA, serve as a central metaphor for the hidden infrastructures of digital technologies, whose thirst for resources increasingly drains the land, leaving behind a landscape that has become an archive of its own transformation.
The newly developed 3-channel video installation Valley of the Heart’s Delight (2025) expands on these themes, referencing the indigenous past of Silicon Valley, now buried far beneath corporate headquarters, whose sleek façades conceal innate power imbalances.
© Federico Floriani/MAK
© Federico Floriani/MAK
© Federico Floriani/MAK
© Federico Floriani/MAK
© Federico Floriani/MAK
© Federico Floriani/MAK
© Federico Floriani/MAK
© Felix Lenz
© Felix Lenz / Stella-Joya Puelacher
© Felix Lenz
© Felix Lenz / Stella-Joya Puelacher
© Felix Lenz / Stella-Joya Puelacher
© Felix Lenz
© Felix Lenz
© Felix Lenz
© Felix Lenz
© Felix Lenz
© Felix Lenz
© Felix Lenz / Jaakko Taavila
© Felix Lenz / Jaakko Taavila
Previous Image
While technological infrastructures promise seamless efficiency, their premises rest on the silent erosion of the landscapes, histories and communities that bear its consequences. Soft Image, Brittle Grounds challenges the illusion of equity in technological progress, urging us to see not only what is shown, but what is lost in the telling.
The themes explored in Soft Image, Brittle Grounds are closely connected to the MAK exhibition WATER PRESSURE: Designing for the Future (21.5.–7.9. 2025).
As a central platform for the international dialogue between design, art, and architecture, the Triennale di Milano 2025 addresses the theme of Inequalities, the growing social, economic, and ecological imbalances that are increasingly being exacerbated by the climate crisis and rapid technological developments
triennale.org
La Triennale di Milano, Viale Alemagna 6, 20121 Milan, Italy
Commissioner
Lilli Hollein, General Director and Artistic Director, MAK
Curator
Marlies Wirth, Curator, Digital Culture and Design Collection, MAK
Artistic concept and realization
Felix Lenz
Governmental funding
Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport of the Republic of Austria
Cooperation partner
University of Applied Arts, Vienna
Kindly supported by
4YOUREYE projektionsdesign & -technik gmbh
Austrian Cultural Forum Milan
Cooperation Partner
The themes explored in Soft Image, Brittle Grounds are closely connected to the MAK exhibition WATER PRESSURE: Designing for the Future (21.5.–7.9. 2025).
As a central platform for the international dialogue between design, art, and architecture, the Triennale di Milano 2025 addresses the theme of Inequalities, the growing social, economic, and ecological imbalances that are increasingly being exacerbated by the climate crisis and rapid technological developments
triennale.org
La Triennale di Milano, Viale Alemagna 6, 20121 Milan, Italy
Commissioner
Lilli Hollein, General Director and Artistic Director, MAK
Curator
Marlies Wirth, Curator, Digital Culture and Design Collection, MAK
Artistic concept and realization
Felix Lenz
Governmental funding
Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport of the Republic of Austria
Cooperation partner
University of Applied Arts, Vienna
Kindly supported by
4YOUREYE projektionsdesign & -technik gmbh
Austrian Cultural Forum Milan
Cooperation Partner
Media
Installation view of the Austrian Contribution Soft Image, Brittle Grounds to the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition The mixed-media installation by Felix Lenz, commissioned and curated by the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna © Federico Floriani/MAK
Installation view of the Austrian Contribution Soft Image, Brittle Grounds to the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition The mixed-media installation by Felix Lenz, commissioned and curated by the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna © Federico Floriani/MAK
Installation view of the Austrian Contribution Soft Image, Brittle Grounds to the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition The mixed-media installation by Felix Lenz, commissioned and curated by the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna © Federico Floriani/MAK
Installation view of the Austrian Contribution Soft Image, Brittle Grounds to the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition The mixed-media installation by Felix Lenz, commissioned and curated by the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna © Federico Floriani/MAK
Installation view of the Austrian Contribution Soft Image, Brittle Grounds to the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition The mixed-media installation by Felix Lenz, commissioned and curated by the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna © Federico Floriani/MAK
Installation view of the Austrian Contribution Soft Image, Brittle Grounds to the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition The mixed-media installation by Felix Lenz, commissioned and curated by the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna © Federico Floriani/MAK
Installation view of the Austrian Contribution Soft Image, Brittle Grounds to the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition The mixed-media installation by Felix Lenz, commissioned and curated by the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna © Federico Floriani/MAK
Felix Lenz, Soft Image, Brittle Grounds, 2025 Greenscreen on set: Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah, USA © Felix Lenz © Felix Lenz
Felix Lenz, Brute Force [Exhibition Cut], 2025 Co-direction: Ganaël Dumreicher Film still: Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah, USA © Felix Lenz / Stella-Joya Puelacher
Felix Lenz, Brute Force [Exhibition Cut], 2025 Co-direction: Ganaël Dumreicher Film still: Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA © Felix Lenz
Felix Lenz, Brute Force [Exhibition Cut], 2025 Co-direction: Ganaël Dumreicher Film still: West Desert Sinkhole, Utah, USA © Felix Lenz / Stella-Joya Puelacher
Felix Lenz, Brute Force [Exhibition Cut], 2025 Co-direction: Ganaël Dumreicher Film still: Earth Observation Data Center, Vienna, AUT © Felix Lenz / Stella-Joya Puelacher
Felix Lenz, Brute Force [Exhibition Cut], 2025 Film still: Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah, USA © Felix Lenz
Felix Lenz, Brute Force [Exhibition Cut], 2025 Film still: Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, USA © Felix Lenz
Felix Lenz, Brute Force [Exhibition Cut], 2025 Film still: Sinkhole, Utah, USA © Felix Lenz
Felix Lenz, Brute Force [Exhibition Cut], 2025 Film still: Owens Lake, California, USA © Felix Lenz
Felix Lenz, Brute Force [Exhibition Cut], 2025 Co-direction: Ganaël Dumreicher Film still: Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah, USA © Felix Lenz
Felix Lenz, Brute Force [Exhibition Cut], 2025 Film still © Felix Lenz
Felix Lenz, Brute Force [Exhibition Cut], 2025 Co-direction: Ganaël Dumreicher Film still: S18 double-slit experiment, Institute Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, FRA © Felix Lenz / Jaakko Taavila
Felix Lenz, Valley of the Heart’s Delight, 2025 Film still © Felix Lenz / Jaakko Taavila
Exhibitions
