Bare Systems at MUD Gallery Shanghai | External curation: Andreas Gysin and Sidi Vanetti

In Mud Gallery’s debut solo exhibition, curated by Mimi Nguyen of Nguyen Wahed, Swiss artist duo Andreas Gysin and Sidi Vanetti present six newly created works that systematically deconstruct the core of digital image generation. The exhibition title, Bare Systems, encapsulates their creative approach: stripping technology down to its most fundamental mechanical principles, exposing the hardware and algorithms that are usually concealed within the “black box.” This “transparency” reveals an alternative kind of complexity—each exposed component compels us to confront the often-overlooked infrastructures underlying technology.

These works do not rely on excessive ornamentation; instead, they embody core contradictions in their rawest form: the difference between what technology can do and what humans can perceive; the discrepancy between what we think we see and how digital images are actually generated; the gap between the “precision” promised by digital systems and the “blur” of physical reality. These unadorned software and hardware elements, and the transparent creative processes behind them, are not flaws to be hidden. By laying the systems bare—bare both in terms of material minimalism and conceptual clarity—the artists highlight a deeper truth. They remind us that even the simplest technologies carry with them layers of sensory, cultural, and temporal complexity.Transparency, in this context, is a form of richness: the closer we look, the more we discover.