Fact 2023

A selection of our favourite performances and features Fact presented in print, online and at 180 Studios in 2023.

Global conflicts, a cost of living crisis, the uncertain consequences of AI and ongoing climate meltdown: 2023, like the years that have preceded it, has been an exceptionally challenging one. In spite of these events, artists across the world have challenged the status quo and provided comfort through art and communal experiences, in physical space and online. Fact has shone a light on many of these artists this year in print, online and our exhibitions at 180 Studios, with work spanning live performance, installations and virtual experiences.

Fact’s two print issues this year were grouped around broader themes: Our S/S 2023 issue was themed around the intersection of video games and art, and featured interviews with artists such as Gabriel Massan & LYZZA, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and Theo Triantafyllidis. Fact’s F/W 2023 issue put the spotlight on artists working where sound and art meet, such as Devon Turnbull, whose communal hi-fi listening room draws inspiration from Tokyo listening bars, and Evian Christ, whose Trance Party has built a community around a shared love of trance music.

Other print highlights from the year include interviews with BAMBII, a rising star from Toronto whose Caribbean roots shape her approach as a DJ and producer, and Kali Malone, who discussed the endurance element of her work and the epiphanies of her new album, Does Spring Hide Its Joy.

This year we travelled to the summit of Mount Etna with Caterina Barbieri for a very special episode of our Patch Notes series, in which we filmed a modular performance like no other. We also went behind the scenes with Barbieri as she toured her light-years show around Europe. Our Residency series focused on Gabriel Massan, who presented a three-part work exploring queer club culture, societies of violence and virtual ecosystems, and our Fact Live series moved to its new home in 180 Studios’ XR Stage, where SVBKVLT’s 33EMYBW and Timedance producer-turned-crooner Bruce delivered visually and sonically stunning performances backed with visual elements that transported them into new digital worlds.

At 180 Studios, Fact presented a series of groundbreaking works and exhibitions from artists including Jon Rafman, whose film Minor Daemon examined the relationship between technology and social consciousness, and Gabriel Moses and Campbell Addy, who presented intensely personal exhibitions of their photography across the worlds of music and fashion.

To close the year, United Visual Artists presented the career-spanning Synchronicity, an exhibition connecting the worlds of visual art and music that touched on themes like environmental destruction, the evolution of human movement and the cosmos. We also looked back on 2022’s Future Shock exhibition with a virtual experience created by Weirdcore, which featured 16 works from artists and collectives working at the cutting edge of digital technology.

Watch next: United Visual Artists: Chromatic