Who controls our data, personal sovereignty, and political freedom? Answers are offered by DATAS: The Data and the Sovereign, an exhibition in which Czech and international artists explore in their works how computing technologies, automation, and digital infrastructures undermine personal and state sovereignty.
The beasts that threaten us today are unlikely to be roaring lions; rather, they are algorithmic systems, data infrastructures, and AI-driven forms of governance that operate beyond effective democratic oversight.
This group exhibition confronts one of the defining struggles of the coming decades that is profoundly shaping human agency: the battle for sovereignty in an age when data and computation increasingly exceed legal and political control. As algorithmic systems influence public discourse, automate and manipulate decision-making, and shape the conduct of war, the foundations of democracy are being rewritten in code. Bringing together voices in art, philosophy, and technology the exhibition examines how personal and national self-determination might persist amid the forces of surveillance capitalism and authoritarianism.
The featured works range from interactive installations to narrative films and software art. They move beyond critique to model ethical alternatives to extractive digital regimes. The exhibition unfolds across three constellations. Spectres of the Leviathan addresses the datafied sovereign, examining algocracy, cybersecurity, and automated governance. Islands of Insubordination focuses on infrastructures such as energy networks, submarine cables, and data centres, revealing sovereignty as a form of logistical and computational power with ecological consequences. Songs of Refusal explores the fragility of personal sovereignty under conditions of profiling, prediction, and surveillance, where images become operative within systems of control.
– Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás, curator
Co-funded by the European Union as part of the Creative Europe framework. Developed within the programme DATAS: The Data and the Sovereign(2025–26), the exhibition brings together artists from Central and Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and beyond to examine how computation transforms both political authority and personal self-determination. A publication of the same name is being released to accompany the exhibition.
Curator: Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás
Partners: Projekt Atol, Goethe-Institut, IZOLYATSIA, MeetFactory, Tallinna Kunstihoone
More information about the event can be found on the Galerie Rudolfinum website.
Galerie Rudolfinum