mim ~
machina imaginis = imagination machine
info@mim.ac

At first view you don’t feel like machines, buttons or knobs have a lot in common with imagination or fantasy. But out of a longtime wish, the MACHINA IMAGINIS art collective, consisting of the artist Jonathan Owadja, the sound designer Maria S. Honegger, and the technician Marcel Siegwart, designs colourful machines using analogue keys and switches that produce sounds and lights to create moods – in the room around as well as in the person that operates them. The imagination machine is at the same time piece of art and toy, it can be used for installations, as an instrument or for performances. Age doesn’t matter, it’s fun for everyone!

No. 20060920

Metal, electronics, sound
Format: 1100 x 1100 mm
Year: 2020

crude oil (Azerbaijan)
seawater (Genua)
Format: 13 x 17.5 cm
Year: 2021

FELIX NATALIS

Hand sanitizing machine
Serial No. 22141020/1-4

For each machine we have created its own fragrance
and happy birthday version.

clean hands with sound and light according to the following instruction for 30 seconds.

ORCHESTRA

Serial No.14220521
Format: 2000 x 160 mm
Year: 2021

cyanotype
Blueprints for Orchestra Machine
Format: s/m/l/xl
Year: 2021

AFO

Exhibition - Werkbeitrag 2020 Stadt St. Gallen
Architektur Forum Ostschweiz

CO(S)MA

CO(S)MA or the Machina Imaginis' launch pad

One of the first works by Machina Imaginis can be inspected in the children's museum of the St.Gallen Art Museum - a walk-in cockpit made up of various recycled machines, switches, lights and buttons. Actually, this cockpit, which served as a prop for a Micro Science Ficition series, should be put into the trash. But somehow it found a new place in the children's museum. We are very pleased that it is now ready for take-off in full size and freshly serviced for young (and old)! We would like to send a thank you in the past to Pädde and Paul Vetsch, without whose help it would never have been created. Special thanks in the present go to Daniela and the whole team for the great reconstruction! It is open every first Sunday of the month, more information here

analog special effects

the green machine

Paratissima Bologna 2020

photos by paratissima

Still Life No. 4

Description: Sound of a fruit bowl in a dark room
Material: acrylic on canvas / electronics
Format: 32 x 28 cm
Year: 2020
Location: Schloss Dottenwil

Jenseits

Rubens No. 1

The Fall of the Damned

photos by christian widmer

MANUAL

Button arrangement and sound composition based on the artwork "The Fall of the Damned" by Peter Paul Rubens (Pinakothek München). Format: 1/3 of the original.

Composizione a quattro mani

A Machina Imaginis...

...is an art machine or an electronic work of art with controls that can trigger sensory and psychological effects by collaging sounds, lights, sensations on the skin, and sometimes scents, to form an inner image.

...addresses different sensory modalities at the same time, such as the eye, the skin sensation and the ear, sometimes also the nose. While the eye can only see one thing, the ear, the nose or the sensation on the skin expand the range of perception and imagination. Sensory impression can generate “inner images” by superposing them and trigger a mood or emotion. At this moment a relationship is created between man and machine and the room, they share at this moment.

special exhibition
(click here)

press

Voyeur

3D Stereoscopy

@Kunstraum Waldhaus Zurich, 2019

AWARDS 

2020 Werkbeitrag Stadt St. Gallen

2020 Paratissima Bologna Art Fair – N.I.C.E. Prize

2020 Paratissima Torino Art Fair – Top Talent Prize

Hot honey bees

PREVIEW

past

2024 1. – 7. März
Silberturm Underground, Tiefgarage UG3, Rorschacherstr. 150, St. Gallen

2023 Felix Natalis, BELETAGE Art Space,
Utoquai 41, Zürich

2023 Orchestra, Villa Grünfels,
Rapperswil Jona

2023 Echt jetzt?: «Falschheit»,
FAd, Projektraum 4 ½, St. Gallen

2023 23. Juni
Unikate @ Villa Schmidheiny, Heerbrugg

2022 Museumsnacht St. Gallen mit Künstlerkollektiv FAd, Masken, St. Gallen

2021 28. Oktober – 21. November
Paratissima art fair, Turin

2021 28. November – 6. Februar
Grosse Regionale im Kunst(Zeug)Haus und ALTEFABRIK,
Rapperswil

2021 10. Juni – 4. Juli
KoN-TaKT (Einzelausstellung),
Städtische Ausstellung im Lagerhaus
Architektur Forum Ostschweiz

2021 März Desinfektionsmaschine
in der Kunsthalle Luzern

2021 März Desinfektionsmaschine
in der Macelleria d’Arte, St. Gallen

2021 März Desinfektionsmaschine
im Oxyd, Winterthur

2020 12. November – 15. November
Green iDeal, Biennale tecnologia, Turin

2020 6. – 7. November
MIGMA Performance-Tage im NF49, Luzern 

2020 23. Oktober – 8. November 
Paratissima art fair, Turin

2020 15. Oktober – 29. November 
Borders art fair 2020, future landscapes, Venedig

2020 5. September
Ausstellung – “Negativ” mit dem Künstlerkollektiv FAd,
Fratton Raum, St. Gallen

2020 15. Februar – 29. März
Ausstellung – “Negativ” mit dem Künstlerkollektiv FAd,
Galerie Schloss Dottenwil, Wittenbach

2020 24. – 26. Januar
Paratissima art fair, Bologna

2019 29. November – 29. Dezember
supersale XXL exhibition art outlet with blackfridayspecial 10% discount
Galerie Macelleria d'Arte (mini market), St. Gallen

2019 23. November
big bang good bye, Kunstraum Waldhaus, Zürich

2019 12. – 21. September
Fünf Sinne, Kunstraum Waldhaus, Zürich

2019 6. – 11. September
Museumsnacht St. Gallen mit dem Künstlerkollektiv FAd,
Ikone, 4 1/2 Projektraum, St. Gallen

2019 Digalog Art Festival, Lokremise Wil

2018 Museumsnacht St. Gallen mit Künstlerkollektiv FAd, Konvex/Konkav, Lattich, St. Gallen

2017 Gruppenausstellung in der Sammlung Helga Sonanini, Zürich

2017 Museumsnacht St. Gallen mit Künstlerkollektiv FAd, Schöpferische Zerstörung, Galerie Macelleria d'Arte, St. Gallen

Mondrian, picasso, Van Gogh …

team

Marcel Siegwart, Marie Malou und Jonathan Owadja

Contact: info@mim.ac / 0041(0)765895806