hollywood protest meets AI news in marco brambilla’s US media critique video installation

Marco Brambilla presents limit of control in bitforms gallery

Visual artist Marco Brambilla unveils Limit of Control, his first solo exhibition with bitforms gallery, New York, a two-channel video installation that interrogates America’s media landscape, civil unrest, and the visceral intersection of violence, power, and news coverage in contemporary society. The show, which opened days after the US presidential election and runs until January 15, 2025, intertwines real footage with AI-generated imagery, creating a layered socio-political critique that immerses viewers in a surreal and incisive narrative of the current zeitgeist.

Building on his 2004 work Sync, in which the artist deconstructed Hollywood film sequences into rapid-fire visual medleys, Limit of Control delves deeper into the overwhelming sensory overload that defines media consumption today. Sync drew from archives of fight scenes, sex scenes, and audience reactions to examine the escalating thresholds of brutality and eroticism in popular culture. Similarly, Limit of Control reflects a culture characterized by visual and auditory chaos through montage. This latest project, however, introduces artificial intelligence as a creative collaborator. Brambilla layers hundreds of scenes from Hollywood films and documentaries—focusing on depictions of civil unrest—with AI-generated imagery.

installation view of Marco Brambilla’s Limit of Control (prompted) and Limit of Control, 2024 | image by Han Nguyen, courtesy of the artist and bitforms gallery

the video installation delves into media consumption overload

At the heart of Limit of Control by the Paris-based film director Marco Brambilla is a trained AI model guided by voice prompts to generate scenes that straddle the line between photorealism and abstraction. These transitions blur the distinction between documented and imagined events, offering a commentary on the fluidity of truth in an era dominated by algorithmically curated content. The accompanying soundscape heightens the impact, merging recordings of actual protests with AI-processed sound effects and music cues. The audio collage reflects the visual chaos, intensifying the critique of sensationalized news and the exploitation of human suffering.

Marco Brambilla, Limit of Control, 2024 | courtesy of the artist and bitforms gallery

ai-generated imagery narrates traumatic human experiences

Alongside the main installation, Brambilla introduces Limits of Control (Prompted), a reinterpretation of the two-channel work that leans into surrealism. Using AI-generated imagery and text prompts, this piece abstracts the violent and graphic themes of the original into a ‘celebratory’ spectacle. The violence, human suffering, and chaos are transformed into a surreal ‘dance of death.’ By reimagining these traumatic narratives as lyrical and dreamlike, the secondary work elicits a paradoxical response—challenging the viewer to reconcile the aesthetic allure of the imagery with its underlying horrors.

Brambilla’s Limit of Control reflects the artist’s enduring preoccupation with how technology shapes perception and consciousness. By embracing the capabilities of artificial intelligence, he crafts a thought-provoking meditation on the nature of reality, the manipulation of public perception, and the role of art in interrogating these dynamics.

Marco Brambilla, Limit of Control (Prompted), 2024, single-channel video | courtesy of the artist and bitforms gallery

Marco Brambilla, Limit of Control, 2024, two-channel video | courtesy of the artist and bitforms gallery

Marco Brambilla, Limit of Control (Prompted), 2024, single-channel video | courtesy of the artist and bitforms gallery

Marco Brambilla, Limit of Control, 2024, two-channel video | courtesy of the artist and bitforms gallery

Marco Brambilla, Limit of Control (Prompted), 2024, single-channel video | courtesy of the artist and bitforms gallery

Marco Brambilla, Limit of Control, 2024, two-channel video | courtesy of the artist and bitforms gallery

Marco Brambilla, Limit of Control (Prompted), 2024, single-channel video | courtesy of the artist and bitforms gallery

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installation view of Marco Brambilla’s Limit of Control (prompted) and Limit of Control, 2024 | image by Han Nguyen, courtesy of the artist and bitforms gallery

installation view of Marco Brambilla’s Limit of Control, 2024 | image by Han Nguyen, courtesy of the artist and bitforms gallery

installation view of Marco Brambilla’s Limit of Control (prompted) and Limit of Control, 2024 | image by Han Nguyen, courtesy of the artist and bitforms gallery