Autodrama with Gary Zhexi Zhang

Oct. 29, 2026, 7–9 pm  
Géza, 306 Maujer

Autodrama, production stills, Gary Zhexi Zhang.

About

Amant New York Fall 2026 resident Gary Zhexi Zhang presents Autodrama, a performance lecture exploring the artist’s experiments with autonomous actors on a self-directing game engine stage.

In a computer-controlled system in which characters operate independently of a player, Zhang has rehearsed “situations” that borrow freely from the language of cinema, vertical micro-dramas, and group psychology. Within these environments, lighting, characters, and cameras become agentic performers, unfolding their own choreography of narrative and emotional control. At turns a meditation on contemporary narrative technologies and a virtual chamber play, Autodrama explores Zhang’s longstanding interest in parasociality, egregores, and the cybernetics of identity through scenes of heightened and calculated sentimentality.

This program is part of the For Your Reference series, where our artists in residence share and discuss key references informing their ongoing research at Amant. Amant programs are always free.  

Doors for Autodrama will open at 6:45 pm on Thursday, October 29. RSVPs are encouraged but not required. Entry is first come, first served.

Gary Zhexi Zhang’s works explore systemic connections between cosmology, technology and economy. He operates individually, collaboratively and with organisations in various modalities, including installation, film, performance, writing, teaching as well as conducting research within the framework of cultural institutions and think tanks. He recently edited a book of fictions, essays and interviews about finance and time, Catastrophe Time! (Strange Attractor Press, 2023). Dead Cat Bounce, the opera he co-created with Waste Paper Opera, premiered at Somerset House in 2022 and toured in 2024. In 2024, exhibitions included his solo presentation METAMERS at EPFL Pavilions, Lausanne, and participation in the 9th Asian Art Biennial, Taichung. He has taught as a Lecturer in Critical Studies at Goldsmiths MFA and Adjunct Lecturer at Parsons School of Design in New York, where he also co-founded design studio, Foreign Objects. Books and chapters include Against Reduction (chapter, MIT Press, 2021), Incomputable Earth (chapter, Bloomsbury, upcoming), Platforms: Around, In Between and Through (Singapore Biennale, 2023); Future Art Ecosystems III & VI (co-author; Serpentine, 2022 & 2024).

Series

For Your Reference

For Your Reference is a program series that spotlights our current artists in residence and gives them a platform to share ongoing conversations and research.

Explore For Your Reference →