Cezar Mocan
1993 born in Romania, Working and living in Lisbon, Portugal
2019–2021 M.P.S. New Media Art (Interactive Telecommunications Program), New York University
2012 – 2016 B.S. Computer Science, Yale University
„My work uses game engines, video and the web as a way to understand the power structures that shape society’s engagement with technology.“
Cezar Mocan is interested in the interplay between technology and the natural landscape. Using
narrative generative systems—animated videos of infinite duration, real-time simulations built in game engines or other software—he creates worlds
that recontextualize aspects of digital culture we take for granted, often in absurd ways, while investigating the power structures which mediate our
relationship with technology. He is interested in the built infrastructures which enable our digital lives, as well as the ways in which their presence in
the natural landscape affects our perception: the moments when utility becomes nostalgia. Drawing on media archaeology and art history, his research
process traces the origins of our current thought patterns around (technological) progress.
Grants
2025 SOLO AI Award, Onkaos & SOLO Collection Madrid
2025 ABS Emerging Artist of the Year Award, Arab Bank Switzerland, Lisbon & Basel
2021 Lumen Prize, London, Student Award Winner
Selected exhibitions
2025
SCAI Artep Gallery, curated by Cristiana Ursache, Sona, ROU
Arcadia Inc: IPO, OFFICE IMPART Node, (s)
Harmonia Ltd, Jardin des Traverses, Paris, FR
Infrastructures of Resilience, Funding the Commons, Berlin, DE
Connecting to Peers, Contemporar Gallery, Cluj-Napoca, ROU
Synthetic Wilds, Athens Digital Art Festival (ADAF), Athens, GR
Down the Silicon Meadow, OFFICE IMPART + Blueshift Gallery, online
2024
Hypertext](hyperlink), Yale University ISOVIST Gallery, New Haven, CT
Desire for the Useless, Simultan Festival, Timisoara, ROU
symbiocene/anthropocene, WIP Festival, CYENS Nicosia, Cyprus
Public Spam, a public art project, Bucharest, ROU
Aura Bonding, Orb / Lens, curated by Stina Gustafsson, online
Arcadia Inc. Panke Gallery /rosa, part of Transmediale Vorspiel, Berlin, DE (s)
Matrix of the Not-Yet, Underground Art and Design, curated by Amy Jiang • online
Beyond Human • Artemis Gallery, Lisbon, PT
2023
Sandbox Mode, OFFICE IMPART, Berlin, DE
Reverse Tar Pit, Onassis ONX Studio, curated by Mark Ramos, Don Hanson & Sammie Veeler, New York, US
Desktop Studies, CAV Gallery, Bucharest, ROU
Tellurian Traversals • Putty’s Coronation Gallery, New York, US
Media Art Festival Arad x Ready Media, Museum of Art Arad, Romania
GUI / GOOEY • Plexus Projects, online & New York
2022
Dynamic Links, www.spam-index.com, online
Scripting, theBlanc Gallery, New York
Currents New Media, Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, USA
Kampüste Dijital Sanat, Akbank Sanat, Istanbul, TUR
Sculpted in Our Image, Forged in Our Minds, Inter/Access, online & Toronto
2021
Soft Power, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York, US (s)
Socials
