Press Start For Art

Accompanying the performances of Fantasia Malware, an installation and discourse programme on the dynamic fusion of performance, art and gaming culture will take place in cooperation with the DKB Foundation and CAA Berlin. Gaming is more than entertainment – it is a form of artistic expression, a mirror of society and a defining visual culture all at once. The programme shows how artists transform gaming aesthetics and mechanisms into a visual, socially critical language. HAU3 transforms into an experimental playground where visitors not only watch, but also immerse themselves in playable worlds.

The exhibition “Press Start For Art” shows how artists appropriate games: as material, as a figure of thought, as a means of access. While some works can actually be played, others use elements such as avatars, interface aesthetics, or level logic. This creates game worlds in which very specific rules apply. It’s all about identity, control, and society. Between interactive installations and video works, visitors move through a space in which self-empowerment and images of society are renegotiated. In this process, the game becomes an artistic tool that allows us to take a critical look at current events.

allapopp is an interdisciplinary artist. allapopp's queer and non-binary perspective focuses on tech-positive visions of the future and decolonial perspectives in digital technologies. allapopp works with digital and social media, performance and sound, machine learning, interactive live phygital formats and experiences in VR, AR, XR and on the web. allapopp is also co-founder of TATAR KYZ:LAR. HAU has realised numerous projects with allapopp, including “The House of Monstress Intelligenzia” (2023), “Hyperlove” (2024) and “AŞ” (2025), as well as productions in collaboration with the collective dgtl fmnsm.

Lenn Blaschke is an interdisciplinary media artist living and working in Berlin. His work focuses on virtual reality, installations, games, and the metaverse. As an observer of the virtual world, he comments on current (political) events through multimedia conceptual art. Blaschke is co-founder of the media collective THIS IS FAKE and founder of Little Brother e.V., an association dedicated to privacy, autonomy, and art. His work has been shown at the Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, Kunstverein Bielefeld, and at festivals such as DOK Leipzig and ANIFILM. He currently works at the Institute for Democratic Culture (IdK) at Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences.

Laura Cugusi is an artist, writer and researcher. Her research focuses on mapping media ecologies, tech literacies, governance infrastructures and institutional world-building strategies that shape and consolidate the imagination (or lack thereof) about the future.

machine yearning aka Nada Zanhour work across sound, video, interactive media and 3D. Her research focuses on online aesthetics, internet hyper-niches, meme culture and digital militarism.

LaTurbo Avedon is a genderless avatar and artist. Over the past decade, LaTurbo Avedon has developed a body of work that illuminates the growing intensity between users and virtual experiences, creating creative environments that deepen the significance of memories found within the metaverse. LaTurbo Avedon also curates and designs Panther Modern, a file-based exhibition space that encourages artists to create site-specific installations for the internet.

Rebecca Merlic is a digital artist, architect, and experimental filmmaker, educated at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Tokyo Geidai. Her practice explores immersive virtual spaces, digital co-creation, and socio-political storytelling through feminist and decolonial perspectives. Her work has been shown at Ars Electronica, Belvedere 21, the National Museum Oslo, Expo Osaka, and SLAMDANCE, and has received the Marianne von Willemer Prize, Theodor Körner Prize, Content Vienna Award, DKB VR Art Prize, and an Ars Electronica Honorary Mention as well as the 12th World Omosiroi Award 2026 in Osaka.