HEK to close 'New Rituals [for the End of the World]' with Anan Fries workshop on techno-spirituality

HEK (House of Electronic Arts Basel) will mark the closing weekend of 'New Rituals [for the End of the World]' with a workshop led by artist and curator Anan Fries on 9 August 2026. The event, titled 'TechBrunch: Techno-Spirituality with Anan Fries', is scheduled for 12:30 to 14:30 at HEK in Basel and will be held in German. Admission is listed at CHF 45, CHF 20 or CHF 0 reduced.

According to HEK’s programme text, the workshop asks what happens if a ritual can function as a technology for navigating change. Fries will introduce the ideas behind the exhibition and discuss the inspirations that shaped it, using the morning format to connect everyday habits with wider questions about technology, belief and transformation.

The programme frames rituals as more than religious or inherited practice. Notifications, apps, tarot cards and candles are presented as examples of repeated gestures that can organise experience and respond to uncertainty. HEK says the session will explore techno-spirituality as a meeting point between technology, spirituality, belief and everyday life, with discussion topics including why AI is sometimes described as an oracle or a deity, why tarot, astrology and magical symbols have reappeared in digital culture, and what kinds of rituals emerge through the devices and platforms people use daily.

Fries will also speak about their own artistic practice. HEK describes that practice as working across art, performance and research in Basel and Berlin, and notes that Fries uses installations, performances, VR and video works to examine transformation, reproduction, techno-spirituality and the entanglement of nature and technology. The page further says their work brings together posthumanist and xenofeminist perspectives with a critical view of technological power structures.

The workshop is part of the exhibition’s closing weekend, and HEK presents it as an opportunity to hear more directly about the concept of 'New Rituals [for the End of the World]'. After Fries’s introduction, participants will move into a collective ritual focused on the smartphone, described by HEK as one of the most intimate technological extensions people use.

The programme says no prior knowledge is required, and croissants, coffee and tea will be provided. HEK also notes that the TechBrunch can be combined with a later 'Curators’ Tour with Anan Fries and Marlene Wenger', which takes place the same day from 15:00 to 16:00 and is included in exhibition admission. Participants in the TechBrunch receive free admission to the exhibition on 9 August.