The Day of the Mantis
The Day of the Mantis
As part of the 16th Gwangju Biennale, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain presents The Day of the Mantis., an immersive film installation by the artistic duo M+M (Marc Weis and Martin De Mattia), curated by Kevin Muhlen.
Presented at the Gwangju Museum of Art, the project brings together three films for the first time: Mad Mieter (2019), Club Bunker (2023) and Silent Odd (2026), a new production.
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Conceived as a fragmented cinematic environment, The Day of the Mantis immerses visitors in three stereoscopic 3D film installations featuring praying mantises and stick insects inhabiting spaces associated with human activity. Apartments, bunkers, clubs and spaceships become hybrid environments, somewhere between biotope and human habitat.
Through these unsettling encounters between human and non-human worlds, M+M explore isolation, latent violence, the desire for escape and contemporary ecological transformations. The project thus proposes a shift away from a human-centred perspective towards a post-anthropocentric point of view.
Casino Luxembourg’s participation in the 16th Gwangju Biennale marks Luxembourg’s first participation in this major international event. It also extends a long-standing collaboration between Casino Luxembourg and M+M, initiated in 2015 with the exhibition 7 Tage (7 Days) and continued in 2024 with My Last Will.
This participation also takes place in a symbolic year for Casino Luxembourg, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026, highlighting the continuity of its commitment to contemporary artistic production and the development of international collaborations.
