AI art on a real wall: what IPFO changed

In August 2025, my series Threaded Identity was shown in the open-air exhibition of the International Photo Festival Olten: woven, faceless figures standing between classic photography.

Standing in front of your own AI work, printed large, surrounded by photographs, does something the screen never will:

• The scroll disappears. Online, an image gets a second of attention. In a room, people stand still, step closer, step back. The work gets the time it was made with.
• The company changes the question. Between photographs, nobody asks «which model did you use?» They ask what the work is about. That is the conversation the work wants.
• Print is the honesty test. At poster size, every shortcut shows. Work that survives printing was directed, not just generated.

AI art doesn’t just belong online. It belongs in conversations, in festivals, in spaces where people can stand in front of it and feel something. Not perfect. Not clear. But honest in feeling.