The much-revered art event, the 10th Bucharest Biennial of Romania, has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But, it’s Chief Curator, Jarvis has no doubts about putting up the best for its ‘visitors’ this year. Jarvis is, however, no man. In fact, they are an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program developed by a Vienna-based studio named Spinnwerk. 

Obviously inspired by the Marvel hero Tony Stark aka Iron Man’s trusted AI butler, Jarvis will “use deep learning in order to learn by itself from databases from universities, galleries, or art centers” and select works that fit the chosen theme, Spinnwerk founder Razvan Ion told the Art Newspaper. The theme of the year is “Farewell to Research”. 

Jarvis will deploy deep learning to review existing databases to identify artists. Then this data will be used to build the base structure for the Bucharest Biennial curation’s way forward. However, it means that only known artists, who have put out significant work in the right places and have a web presence, will have the chance to be featured. 

This is the first time that an AI has been appointed as a curator. However, it’s not the only first at the Bucharest Biennial. With the cancellation of the physical Biennial due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Bucharest folks are taking the festival virtual, another first. Spinnwerk, the creators of Jarvis, will set up the virtual reality (VR) tour in Bucharest so that anyone with a VR headset can attend the events, from across the world. Art booths will also be set up for people in Vienna and Bucharest. 

While AI plays a significant role in the 10th Bucharest Biennial, this isn’t it’s the first foray into the art world. Ai-Da, an AI’ artist’ has made $ 1 million through art sale and Christie’s, one of the world’s most revered art auctioneer, sold an AI artwork for $ 432,500. 

The 10th Bucharest Biennial’s VR version will have two events - a curatorial workshop and a symposium titled “Contemporary Art Biennials—Our Hegemonic Machines in States of Emergency” between June 23 and 28. The official show, curated by Henk Slagar, a human, will be open to audience in spring 2021.