what’s a primate to quantum mechanics?

The Quantum Effect at OGR Torino

At OGR Torino, The Quantum Effect, an expansive exhibition on art and quantum theory, illustrates the seemingly unknowable principles of quantum mechanics with mirrors, monkeys, and monoliths. To enter the exhibition, one must pass through a series of mirrors that create a dizzying sense of disorientation. Turn a corner, and there’s a projection of those reflective halls being played back to the viewer. It’s a visual collapsing of perception that speaks to the uncertainty of the universe. Here, curators Daniel Birnbaum and Jacqui Davies create a world in which Mark Leckey, Yayoi Kusama, and Tomás Saraceno come into dialogue with Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and Dirac’s Equation.

Theories abound

In creating the show, the curators for the show at OGR Torino consulted Professor Ulf Danielsson, professor of theoretical physics at Uppsala University and Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physics, to highlight equations important to the field. Within the exhibition, when staring up at the black monoliths – a wink to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey – these equations appear on the screen as film footage fades in and out of view. By placing these two entities together, film from popular culture and equations, the curators begin to hint at how one informs the other, how Star Trek, footage of Schrödinger’s cat navigating the box, and The Matrix are connected.

Ripples of Duchamp

Additionally, within the exhibition is the persistent fanning out of Duchamp’s influence, pointing to his persistent use of repetition, breaking, and glass. There’s an explicit reference with the inclusion of a photo taken by Man Ray in 1923 of Duchamp holding his work Glissière Contenant un Moulin à Eau (en métaux voisins) (Glider Containing a Water Mill [in Neighbouring Metals], 1913–15). There’s also Sturtevant’s Duchamp descendant l’escalier (1992), a black-and-white photographic interpretation of Duchamp’s painting Nude Descending a Staircase, both of which depict the repetition of a body as it, frame by frame, moves across the canvas.

More subtly, there’s Cerith Wyn Evans’s Phase-shifts )( manifest [after D.T.] (2026), a mobile of cracked windshields, with D.T. in the title standing for ‘delay in time.’ The breaking of glass continues in Mark Leckey’s 2021–22 film, To the Old World (Thank You for the Use of Your Body), in which a man launches his body through a bus stop glass wall, the shards and fragments of which splay into a dark void upon impact. Not only do the curators note a profound parallel between quantum theory and Duchamp’s work – multiple states existing at once, repetition, suspension, and fracture – they tease at how influence ripples. The influence of the Dadaist artist is both present and absent in these referential works, existing in a kind of impossible state of influence.

Primates and the beginning of humanity

Duchamp’s influence carries on into the primate-heavy works in the exhibition. There’s Rirkrit Tiravanija’s untitled or (the savage detectives) (2025), in which two man-ape figures are crouched on the ground, bearing sticks and staring at a replica of Duchamp’s Peigne, a comb with the inscription, ‘3 or 4 drops from a height have nothing to do with savagery.’ This continues into the liminal space of Ryan Gander’s office space, where School of Languages (2023) and Chronos Kairos 01.01 (2025) are being shown. In a white-walled room, an ape named Brenda cowers underneath a corner desk, only visible when you traverse to the other side of the room and peer underneath. Hanging is a digital clock with the time 88:88, which doesn’t exist on our traditional 24-hour clock.

Once again, there’s a heavy reference to perhaps what can be considered a time before man, the primates that preceded us. With the heavy referencing to Kubrick’s film, one can’t help but think again of that moment where the monolith appears, interrupting linear time with its presence. Here, the curators are calling back to the idea that maybe this straight progression of time, one where we can easily track fish to ape to man, is perhaps more complicated than we may believe.

The Quantum Effect on mankind

What emerges in The Quantum Effect is less a definitive explanation of the universe than an invitation to reconsider how we understand it. Like the intricate webs of Tomás Saraceno, whose glowing structures trace paths of seemingly incomprehensible complexity, the exhibition brings together a constellation of references, ideas, and artistic gestures that resist a single point of interpretation. From quantum equations and fractured reflections to primates, monoliths, and Duchampian repetitions, the works unsettle familiar understandings of time, perception, and human progress.

Even with the most advanced mathematics and scientific theories, the universe remains fundamentally elusive. Rather than attempting to resolve these uncertainties, the exhibition embraces them, finding in the unknown a space for speculation, connection, and wonder. Ultimately, The Quantum Effect suggests that understanding the world may not be a matter of finding definitive answers, but of remaining open to the possibilities that emerge when art and science meet.

project info:

name: The Quantum Effect

location: OGR Torino, Italy | @ogr_torino

dates: October 31, 2026- February 25, 2027

curators: Daniel Birnbaum and Jacqui Davies

artists: Cerith Wyn Evans, Isa Genzken, Tomás Saraceno, Mark Leckey, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Sturtevant, Emilija Škarnulytė, Ryan Gander, Faustine Studio, and Man Ray

This article is part of designboom’s POSTHUMAN UTOPIAS chapter, exploring what happens when humans are no longer the measure of all things. These stories rethink our relationship with the planet through interspecies architecture, living materials, regenerative landscapes and emerging technologies – learn more here! The chapter is presented in partnership with INDX|GLOBAL – a global cultural platform placing Indian architecture, design, and creative intelligence in conversation with the world.

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