The exhibition Energias da IA / Energies of AI will present a series of very recent works, many of which will be presented for the first time, by contemporary artists who tackle the “energies of AI” from a double perspective: on the one hand, the energies that power AI technologies (electricity, water, critical minerals, computation, human labor, capital); on the other, the energies that AI releases across cultures, societies, and environments, in terms of data analysis and data generation, prediction, surveillance, influence, attention capture, emotion and mind control.

Located in part in the Tejo Power Station, the thermoelectric power plant which supplied power to the entire city and region of Lisbon, the MAAT museum is the perfect site to present an exhibition which is centered on an “energetic” approach to AI, both in its current form and with its possible future developments. Many of the exhibited artworks will be turned towards the future, helping us imagine where AI – with its profound social, political and environmental implications – is headed.

Among the artists confirmed there will be Hito Steyerl, with the installation Mechanical Kurds (2025), which deals with the phenomenon of the crowdsourced micro-labor used to train AI models; Kate Crawford & Vladan Joler, with a new project on the “metabolic” dimension of AI technologies entitled Metabolic Machines (2026), produced specifically for this exhibition; Trevor Paglen, with a new project on AI technologies as a new form of mind control entitled Hypnosis (2026); Grégory Chatonsky, with a new project on the intertwinings between machine and human learning entitled Depletion (2026); Fabien Giraud, with the first iteration (Epoch 1) of theThe Feral (2035-3035), a project meant to span a thousand years and centered on the interactions between an AI, a human community, and an natural milieu. Other artworks by Portuguese and international artists are currently being selected.

Curator's biography

Antonio Somaini, is Professor of Film, Media and Visual Culture Theory at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, and Visiting Professor at the Harvard. His research deals with the impact of AI technologies on images, visual culture, and contemporary artistic practices. He has been the chief curator of the exhibition Le monde selon l’IA / The World Through AI presented at the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris (21 April – 21 September 2025) and now traveling to the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt and two museums in Brazil (Campinas and São Paulo). Among his recent publications, the book Culture visuelle. Images, regards, médias, dispositifs (with Andrea Pinotti, Les Presses du Réel, Dijon, 2022) and the text “A Theory of Latent Spaces” in the catalogue he co-edited for the Jeu de Paume exhibition (The World Through AI: Exploring Latent Spaces, JBE Books / Jeu de Paume, Paris, 2025).