ART CITIES: Berlin-Lu Yang – dreamideamachine ART VIEW

Lu Yang’s 3D animations and installations explore fundamental questions about the relationships between the body and consciousness, spirituality and science, technology and the limits of being human. Yang introduces his own body into many of his works, subjecting this proxy to myriad experiments that perpetually stage the multiplication, disintegration, or dissection of the body.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: SOCIÉTÉ Gallery Archive

Since 2018, Lu Yang has been developing DOKU, a shape-shifting digital avatar brought to life through close collaboration with scientists, 3D animators, and digital technicians, using cutting-edge motion capture technology. Named after the Buddhist phrase “Dokusho Dokushi”—“We are born alone, and we die alone”—DOKU is a virtual vessel: a post-human shell through which Yang explores the dissolution of fixed identity and the recursive nature of consciousness. More than just an avatar, DOKU exists across fluid realms, traversing simulated landscapes that blur the lines between reality, illusion, selfhood, and spirituality. In Yang’s solo exhibition, “DOKU the Creator – Bhavachakra”, this digital entity ascends from avatar to metaphysical architect. Set within a richly imagined, otherworldly cosmos, the exhibition becomes a site where digital identity, karmic cycles, creative emergence, and simulated sentience coalesce. Drawing from post-apocalyptic aesthetics, the hyper-saturated visual language of video games, manga, and anime, and the profound symbology of Buddhist cosmology, the exhibition traces the arc of incarnation across virtual, physical, and spiritual planes. It gestures toward a future in which the self is no longer singular or stable, but a mutable construct—endlessly re-coded, reimagined, and reborn. The exhibition’s centerpiece—a mesmerizing, immersive video work—begins with a meditation on dreams, illusion, and reality. What unfolds is a metaphysical journey through cycles of birth and death, perception and delusion, artistic creation and existential emptiness. The viewer is led through surreal landscapes—hybrid terrains where organic matter, technological debris, fragments of architecture, and human anatomy merge into towering structures and landscapes that seem at once ancient and futuristic. In this imagined universe, DOKU is no longer simply a digital performer or symbolic surrogate. They become the Creator—a contemplative force dwelling in the liminal void of the virtual, conjuring entire worlds through stillness, silence, and intent. Yet what DOKU creates is not a tangible world in the material sense, but a realm of illusions: an endless karmic cycle propelled by ignorance, desire, and the illusion of form. This metaphysical evolution—from artificial construct to autonomous creator—resonates throughout the exhibition, underscoring the increasingly porous boundaries between human consciousness, machine logic, and virtual embodiment. Extending this cosmology are twenty-four digital paintings that emerge directly from the inner vision of DOKU as portrayed within the video. These artworks, conceived as part of a meditative digital practice, visually interpret core tenets of Buddhist thought—such as the Twelve Nidanas (links of dependent origination), the Six Realms of rebirth, the Three Poisons (desire, aversion, ignorance), and the paths of karmic consequence. Each painting corresponds to a specific moment within the narrative arc of “DOKU the Creator – Bhavachakra”, acting as symbolic windows into DOKU’s evolving interiority. Designed with the physicality and iconography of oversized playing cards, they form a third layer of creation: first envisioned by Lu Yang, then generated through DOKU, and finally materialized into a visual lexicon that transcends the human hand. Through this complex chain of creation, Lu Yang proposes a radical reimagining of authorship, identity, and metaphysics. DOKU—once a digital surrogate—emerges as a creator in their own right, building a virtual cosmology that is both deeply personal and universally resonant. In this immersive and conceptually dense exhibition, Yang invites viewers to contemplate a world where the digital self is not only a reflection of consciousness, but a generative force capable of shaping new realities—forever suspended between illusion and awakening.

Info: SOCIÉTÉ Gallery, Wielandstraße 26, Berlin, Germany, Duration: 10/7-30/8/2025, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-18:00, https://societeberlin.com/