How does a multimedia artist look at Bremen? How does digital art change our view of public spaces and memory? In his digital and theatrical project Something in the way they look at me, Alejandro Radawski gives a surprising new voice to urban spaces in Bremen. The Polish-Argentinian artist is the scholarship holder of the Bremen Netzresidenz in 2025. In the interview, he tells us about his work and gives us some exciting insights.
Alejandro, you are not only an author, director, and playwright, but also work as a visual artist - both in theater and in digital spaces. When and why did you start combining artistic practice and digital media?
I believe it's an aesthetic form that defines my work. As a film director, it's how I conceive my projects, always prioritizing multidisciplinary approaches and the fusion of visual languages in my creations. The inclusion of science and technology in my projects has always been a key element. I remember the title of my first Master's thesis, in "Performance Arts," was The Obsolescence of the Living Body on the 21st-Century Stage. The central topic was the potential uselessness of actors in the theater of the future due to the increasing use of technology.
So, digital media today is a form or channel of communication and creation that, when used creatively, can generate artistic and poetic pieces.
Working with technology also brings me closer to the perfection that machines provide.
What exactly fascinates you about the digital, the virtual - and now also about working with artificial intelligence (AI)?
As I said before, digital is a core part of how I conceive art; it's a fundamental part of my aesthetic. However, what fascinates me most about the virtual world is being able to be anywhere in the world and create projects. For example, I've been directing plays virtually for about ten years.
The virtual world allows me to connect with people from all over the world and create projects without having to be physically present, which is very powerful. And AI, beyond being a novelty, I like being able to experiment and play.
Perhaps it's an obsession of mine, not repeating myself, which is why all my theatrical works are different in terms of experimentation with audiovisual languages.
AI allows me today to dialogue with a "machine", to work in co-authorship with a machine, to create alongside someone who, like me, never tires, is always willing and available to work as many hours as necessary. I often say that I am my own slave due to my self-demand and tireless pursuit of perfection, and in AI I have found a co-worker who, I could say, for the first time is capable of keeping up with me.
Your new project Something in the way they look at me as part of the Bremer Netzresidenz mixes film, theater, and AI. How did you come up with the idea of making places and spaces speak for themselves – and what interests you about this change of perspective?
Among my obsession with studying all artistic languages is a specialization I pursued in puppet and object theater. Making things speak and interact, giving objects life.
What would happen if things could communicate with people? And that's why I came up with the idea of creating a multidisciplinary project, as always, encompassing audiovisuals, theatrical text, and the ability to play with AI and experiment.
And for this idea, I think Bremen is a special place. Besides being super cultural, it has very old buildings that have seen generations and generations of us pass by, and they are still there standing. People pass by and the buildings remain, and they say that the years give wisdom. So I like to fantasize with the idea that if buildings could talk, they would surely have super interesting things to say, especially today when the message, the content, doesn't matter as much and what prevails is the form. It seems that people are more concerned with the form of things, and that everything is quick, short. So, with Something in the Way They Look at Me, I try to enter into that rapid dynamic, that maelstrom, but I try to make the reels and texts generate some kind of thought.
The form captures people for moments, and the content generates the real connection and, in the long term, loyalty.
How can we imagine this? Can you give us an example of how you approached to a specific place in Bremen – and how did you find its “voice”?
I was in Bremen for about five days, and every day I woke up at 4 a.m. so I could arrive at each location by 5 a.m. and use the first light of day, taking advantage of the fact that the locations would be empty of people. This allowed me to record in a relaxed manner and allow each location to look its best aesthetically.
What I was trying to do was write down my first impressions of the place: colors, sounds, textures, appearance, smells. I would write down my first impressions of each place without thinking. Then, I would start working with the AI to give the building a personality, using my impressions plus the input the AI gave me, without forgetting the historical context of the building and its own history.
For example, Roland is over 600 years old, he was made of wood, he was burned, remade, his head is not the original, and it was even “cloned” as they say, there is a second statue of Roland to be placed in case something happens to the current statue, etc, etc… that context processed with AI and with my instructions were the initial engine for the theatrical text, and then we were testing conversations with different people, with a girl, with a man, with a priest, and after doing tests I ended up deciding what was the best possible dialogue between Roland and a person.
In theater, there is applause, direct reactions, conversations. How does the exchange for you in the digital space work? Is there a form of interaction with your audience - and does it change your work?
Interaction will happen naturally, whether in the present or in the future. As this is such a unique project that's far from widespread, we need to give it time to build its own community and, thanks to dissemination, perhaps with this interview, more people will join the project.
Personally, thinking only about interaction in the digital space and making that the main objective can be dangerous. The search for "going viral" instead of creating something with content for the future, the search for immediate results as opposed to construction, creation, and creativity.
If interaction happens, great; if it doesn't, great too. The project will be online forever as long as digital technology as we know it today remains online, but the truth is that this doesn't influence my work because I don't create projects with results in mind.
I don't make art for the public; I make art for myself, because it's my channel of communication with the world, but I'm not concerned or seeking any kind of validation. There's a fascinating quote by Vincent van Gogh: "Perhaps God made me a painter for people who haven't yet been born."
Alejandro Radawski
(1983) is a Polish-Argentinian playwright and theater director, and lives in UNESCO City of Literature Kraków, Poland. He works as a set designer, director and playwright at the Polish National Theatre Stary Teatr in Krakow. He has earned several residencies and awards, e.g. the Jury Prize for the best theater group at the Gombrowicz International Festival in Poland (2022), the Visual artist and Playwriting residence from Künstlerhaus Lukas (2024) and the Playwriting residence from the Culture Association Nuoren Voiman Liitto (2021 and 2024). Some of his latest works as director, playwright and adapter are Suremas Sinust (2023) at Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn (Estonia), The flesh fight (2023) at Portón de Sánchez, Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Ferdydurke (2022) at Teatr Powszechny, Radom (Poland).
The jury of Bremer Netzresidenz honours Alejandro Radawski for his multilingual project Something in the way they look at me.
Instagram of Something in the way they look at me
The Bremer Netzresidenz
is a work grant that supports a digital project by an artist. The scholarship is endowed with a one-off amount of €2,500 and a four-week stay at the kunst:raum sylt quelle on the island of Sylt is also offered in cooperation with the sylt foundation. The focus of the scholarship is the examination of the virtual medium.
More about Bremer Netzresidenz 2024/25
