The Doughnut (W)Hole Pavilion
The search for what is missing, for what has been lost, has long captured the attention of artists. How do you capture the presence of an absence? How do you contend with the holes? Sometimes the artistic solution is fairly straightforward. The Family of King Henry VIII (artist unknown), for example, is a dynastic painting which sought to reunite Prince Edward with his mother, Jane Seymour, who died when Edward was two weeks old. Sometimes the work is more abstract, such as Rothko’s large canvas invitations to be enveloped by the void, to almost feel it on your skin.
Psychologists believe that confronting what is lost or what is missing is driven by one surprising emotion – hope. The hope that something will be found, illuminated, resolved, healed.
Taking its cue from the paradox at the centre of a doughnut – the presence of an absence – the pavilion brings together 14 international artists exploring how holes shape wholes, how what is missing becomes as meaningful as what is present.
In the age of AI, this question takes on new urgency. Machine learning models appear as overwhelming wholes built from fragments, gaps, and exclusions. The Doughnut (W)Hole Pavilion asks: what role does absence play in constructing the digital images, texts, and worlds we increasingly inhabit – as ‘technology has become the substrate of social, economic, political and aeshtetic lives’ (Serakai_studio, promoting Yuk Hui, 2025)?
The participating artists span photography, moving image, sound, games, and generative installation: Maria Ahmed, Kasper Bergholt, Ben Millar Cole, Evangelia Danedaki, Sarah Deane, Sarah-Jane Field, Alan Knox, David Koh, Merve Kurtuluş, Duncan Petrie, Angel Qin, Heidi Reece, Sarah Sweeney, and Min Jung Tsai.
The Doughnut (W)Hole Pavilion opens this November as part of the 7th edition of The Wrong Biennale, the world’s largest celebration of digital art, reaching millions globally and a member of the International Biennial Association. Alongside the online pavilion, an in-person “embassy” event will take place at Hapax Living Room, London, on 1–2 November 2025.
The search for what is missing, for what has been lost, has long captured the attention of artists. How do you capture the presence of an absence? How do you contend with the holes? Sometimes the artistic solution is fairly straightforward. The Family of King Henry VIII (artist unknown), for example, is a dynastic painting which sought to reunite Prince Edward with his mother, Jane Seymour, who died when Edward was two weeks old. Sometimes the work is more abstract, such as Rothko’s large canvas invitations to be enveloped by the void, to almost feel it on your skin.
Psychologists believe that confronting what is lost or what is missing is driven by one surprising emotion – hope. The hope that something will be found, illuminated, resolved, healed.
Taking its cue from the paradox at the centre of a doughnut – the presence of an absence – the pavilion brings together 14 international artists exploring how holes shape wholes, how what is missing becomes as meaningful as what is present.
In the age of AI, this question takes on new urgency. Machine learning models appear as overwhelming wholes built from fragments, gaps, and exclusions. The Doughnut (W)Hole Pavilion asks: what role does absence play in constructing the digital images, texts, and worlds we increasingly inhabit – as ‘technology has become the substrate of social, economic, political and aeshtetic lives’ (Serakai_studio, promoting Yuk Hui, 2025)?
The participating artists span photography, moving image, sound, games, and generative installation: Maria Ahmed, Kasper Bergholt, Ben Millar Cole, Evangelia Danedaki, Sarah Deane, Sarah-Jane Field, Alan Knox, David Koh, Merve Kurtuluş, Duncan Petrie, Angel Qin, Heidi Reece, Sarah Sweeney, and Min Jung Tsai.
The Doughnut (W)Hole Pavilion opens this November as part of the 7th edition of The Wrong Biennale, the world’s largest celebration of digital art, reaching millions globally and a member of the International Biennial Association. Alongside the online pavilion, an in-person “embassy” event will take place at Hapax Living Room, London, on 1–2 November 2025.