Media artist LuYang (born in Shanghai, PR China) is currently taking the international art scene by storm with his groundbreaking productions. Technically sophisticated and aesthetically stunning, his 3D animated films, video installations, and computer games depict a new form of digital world populated by superheroes, monsters, and gods.

LuYang's art is a unique crossover of neuroscience and Buddhist philosophy, medical technology and body enhancement, as well as manga aesthetics and fantastical sci-fi. Inspired by social issues derived from these fields, LuYang creates artworks and digital avatars that can be read as commentaries on current identity debates as well as the supposed limits of cultural identity. The artist's claim, however, extends far beyond the realm of fiction - LuYang breaks with established categories of thought such as "real" and "artificial" or "male" and "female" right into his own biography. The question of a "true" biological gender is deliberately put aside in order to create mental freedom and to let creativity come to the fore. This concept is personified by LuYang's digital reincarnation Doku, a gender-neutral avatar who will also play the main role in a new video work created especially for Kunstpalais.

The exhibition False Awakening draws from global gaming culture not only in aethetic terms. Visitors are invited to slip into selected roles from LuYang's repertoire and explore his digital world. In May and June, a series of lectures titled Just Thinkers and Creators will examine LuYang's art from the perspectives of art and cultural studies, sinology, and queer studies.