Our Artist Innovation Commissions support world-leading projects in technical research and development, to engage the public with art and technology in imaginative and critical ways.
British artist Libby Heaney presents a new exhibition bringing together two seemingly distant realities: prehistoric cave paintings and the relational universe of quantum computing.
Heaney, who works at the intersection of art and quantum science, extends her inquiry into prehistoric knowledge systems, drawing on research conducted in the caves of the Maros-Pangkep karst in South Sulawesi in 2025. Now part of a UNESCO Global Geopark, the caves are home to imagery dating back over 51,000 years—thought to be among the world's oldest known examples of figurative cave art, and among Indonesia's oldest cultural inheritances.
Presented as a series of quantum relics - Qave Qonsciousness features a new 4k film, glass sculptures and watercolour paintings. Together, the works form part of an immersive experience that reimagines the cave within the gallery space.
As Indonesia navigates rapid shifts in AI, quantum computing, and automation, the exhibition offers an accessible entry point into complex sciences. Whilst also exploring how we might reconnect with forms of transcendence and collective feeling that our contemporary world increasingly compresses, and questioning who will build, own and access the quantum future.
Qave Qonsciousness opens in Jakarta, Indonesia, on the 14 of November at Museum MACAN.
About Dr Libby Heaney
Libby Heaney is an award-winning British artist with a PhD in Quantum Science, and the first artist to work with quantum computing. She has won numerous awards, including the Lumen Prize in Immersive Art and Falling Walls Art and Science Award.
About Museum MACAN
The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara is an art museum in Jakarta. Home to a collection of modern and contemporary art from Indonesia and around the world, the museum supports interdisciplinary education and cultural exchange and provides a platform for local and international artists to present their work to a global audience.
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- Theme: Art and Technology