Patrick Tresset is a French artist based in Brussels. Best known for his performative installations, he explores human presence, the necessity to pass time, the mundane, and memory using computational systems, robotics, and traditional media.
Tresset studied at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he earned a Master’s and an MPhil in Arts and Technology.
Since 2011, he has presented nineteen solo exhibitions, and his work has been shown internationally in major institutions, including the Centre Pompidou and Grand Palais in Paris, Fondazione Prada in Milan, the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, MMCA in Seoul, BOZAR in Brussels, Today Art Museum in Beijing, Ming Contemporary Art Museum (McaM) in Shanghai, and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.
His work is held in private and public collections worldwide and has received numerous international distinctions, including from the Prix Ars Electronica, the Lumen Prize, the Japan Media Arts Festival, and the NTAA (Fondation Liedts-Meesen). In 2017, he was named a World Economic Forum Cultural Leader.
His work has been featured in major press and media outlets, including The New York Times, Le Monde, BBC, Deutsche Welle, Arte, Frieze, ArtReview, artpress, Beaux Arts Magazine, Wired, Vice, and Neural. In 2016, a monograph on his practice, Human Traits and the Art of Creative Machines, edited by Ryszard W. Kluszczyński, was published and reviewed in Leonardo and Neural.
Drawing is a universal human activity, constant since prehistory. I use mark-making to look at presence, the necessity to pass time, mundane moments, and social traits.
I author computational and robotic systems used as actors in performative installations and as autonomous tools to produce digital animations, paintings and drawings. The paintings and drawings depict human presence, while the animations explore the depiction of the mundane, like looking out a train window, watching passersby, the sea or flowers. Recently, I have been using autonomous agents as outside observers to tell stories about humans.
In installations, I stage robots as actors performing repetitive routines that leave traces like memories, prompting viewers to project their own narratives onto the machines.
Computational technology is my medium; the subject is us.
SOLO SHOWS
2026
La Classe, Le Grenier à Sel, Festival d’Avignon, Avignon, France
Anima Automata, Artverse Gallery, Paris, France
2024
Animal Studies, donumenta, Regensburg, Germany
Le Temps de Lire, Galerie Rue Antoine, Paris, France
2023
We Are Here and Now, Pulpo Gallery, Murnau am Staffelsee, Germany
Human Studies, Ara Art Center, Seoul, South Korea
2022
Human Study I & II, Burg Ranfels, Ranfels, Germany
2020
Human Study #1: Art Unchained, ArtisTree, Hong Kong
2019
La petite Vanité au Robot et à la Souris, Galerie Rue Antoine, Paris, France
Umeni Robota, Galerie T-REA, Mons, Belgium
2018
Human Study #1: 5-RNP, Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery, Kraków,
Poland
Étude Humaine #1, Galerie Rue Antoine, Paris, France
2017
Whilst We Were Here…, Watermans Arts Centre, London, UK
Machine Studies, MERGE Festival, London, UK
2016
Human Traits #2, Dixit Algorizmi Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2015
Human Traits, Łaźnia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdańsk, Poland
2013
Human Studies, Bildungsturm, Konstanz, Germany
2012
6-RNP, MERGE Bankside (supported by Tate Modern), London, UK
2011
New Works, Tenderpixel Gallery, London, UK
Public & Institutional Collections
– Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London, UK
– Ming Contemporary Art Museum (McaM), Shanghai, China
– Fondation Guerlain, Paris, France
– New Art Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
– Aksenov Family Foundation, Vienna, Austria
– Künstlerverbund im Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
– Maison d’Ailleurs, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland
– Gesamtkunstwerk Collection, Germany
Work is also held in private collections internationally
Awards & Distinctions
– 2019 – Honorary Mention, Prix Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria
– 2016 – Jury Selection, Japan Media Arts Festival, Tokyo, Japan
– 2014 – Bronze Award, The Lumen Prize, London, UK
– 2014 – New Technological Art Award (NTAA), Fondation Liedts-Meesen, Ghent, Belgium
Grants & Research Funding
– Embodied Agents in Contemporary Visual Art (EACVA), Research Project Grant
– The Leverhulme Trust, Research Grant, UK
– Commission des Arts Numériques, Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Bourse de
recherche, Belgium
– Commission des Arts Numériques, Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Aide à la
conception, Belgium
– NewArtFoundation, ISEA Production Grant, Barcelona, Spain
Selected Group Shows
2025
Automata, Digital Art Mile, Basel, Switzerland
Beyond Surface, Bergson Kunstkraftwerk, Munich, Germany
Creative Machine, Wuhan, China
AI or Nay? Artificial vs. Intelligent, The Media Majlis Museum, Doha, Qatar
2024
ImPOSSIBLE, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany
I’m Sorry Dave, I’m Afraid I Can’t Do That, Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, Busan, South Korea
Ennova Biennale, Ennova Art Museum, Langfang, China
Creative Machines, Taikang Art Museum, Beijing, China
2023
The Future Life, Future You, Jut Art Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
L’Univers sans l’homme, Musée de Valence, Valence, France
2022
Brain(s), CCCB – Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
100 Years of Robots, Centro Cultural Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (curated by Zaven Paré)
2021
Still/Life, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY, USA
VisionarIAs, Etopia Centro de Arte y Tecnología, Zaragoza, Spain
2020
Götterdämmerung, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
Thin as Thorns, in These Thoughts in Us, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2019
The Future and the Arts, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Assembled Human, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Human Study #1, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Kirchner Notebooks, Kirchner Museum, Davos, Switzerland
Deus Ex Machina, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón, Spain
Mind the Deep, Ming Contemporary Art Museum (McaM), Shanghai, China
CyberArts, OK Center for Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria
KIKK Festival, Namur, Belgium
2018
Artistes & Robots, Grand Palais, Paris, France
I am here to learn, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
Goshka Macuga, Neues Museum, Nuremberg, Germany
Beyond 2001: A Space Odyssey, Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, Spain
Trace, New Media Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2017
Animal, Man, Machine, Verbeke Foundation, Kemzeke, Belgium
Artists & Robots, RMN, Astana, Kazakhstan
2016
Goshka Macuga: Before the Beginning and After the End, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy
BIAN – International Digital Art Biennale, Montreal, Canada
Human Factor, Ars Electronica Export, DRIVE, Berlin, Germany
2015
Robot Essay, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul, South Korea
L’Anatomie de l’automate, La Panacée – MoCo, Montpellier, France
Portraits Robots, Maison d’Ailleurs, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland
WRO Media Art Biennale, Wrocław, Poland
2014
Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria
2013
INLOVE, Studio 13/16, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2012
Digital Design Weekend, Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London, UK
2011
Uncontainable, ISEA2011, Istanbul, Turkey
2010
Unleashed Devices, Watermans Arts Centre, London, UK
Selected Keynotes & Talks
2025 – Opening Keynote, E-AI Summit, Montreal, Canada
2024 – In Conversation with Eleonora Brizi, Digital Art Mile, Basel, Switzerland
2017 – Cultural Leader & Panelist, World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland