Lilly Lulay: Soft Errors, Hard Truths

© L. Lulay

Soft Errors, Hard Truths by Lilly Lulay

A Core Exhibition of the CONTACT Photography Festival
Presented by the Goethe-Institut Toronto

May 1 – 29, 2026
Opening Reception: May 1, 2026, 5:30 – 7:30pm | Register here
Goethe Space, Toronto
Free

In a world shaped by algorithms, Frankfurt artist Lilly Lulay examines how systems of sorting, tracking, and prediction shape everyday life. Working across collage, sculpture, textiles, video, and installation, she transforms smartphone imagery, AI metadata, and surveillance into physical form. Soft errors reveal glitches in human and digital systems, while hard truths points to the real-world impact of algorithmic control.

Lulay’s work explores how technologies that connect us can also fragment identity, while opening space for agency and collective rethinking. By materializing the intangible, she turns disorientation into awareness and invites playful engagement with our datafied world.

The exhibition, Lulay’s first in Canada, is accompanied by an opening event and a collage workshop with the artist as well as activations on human–machine collaboration, creativity and empathic AI, and data justice.

Her mixed-media practice uses found and personal images to examine photography’s role in shaping perception and behaviour. Exhibited across Europe and in China, she has received multiple awards and was the Munich Stadtmuseum Photography Collection fellow 2025/26.

Free illuminating programming at the Goethe-Institut:

Opening Reception with artist Lilly Lulay
May 1, 2026, 5:30–7:30pm
Register here

At 6pm, Lulay introduces her Canadian premiere exhibition Soft Errors, Hard Truths in conversation with curator Jutta Brendemühl.

Workshop: Collective Cuts
May 2, 2026, afternoon
Free | Register here | Limited space, 15+ (first come, first served)

Lulay leads a hands-on photo collage session inspired by Surrealist Cadavre Exquis and artists such as Hannah Höch and John Stezaker. Participants create hybrid visual worlds and can explore how early collage practices echo today’s AI-driven image recombination.

Exhibition Activation: Call & Response <> Wilding AI (Coleman & Sinha)
May 6, 2026, 6:30pm

Wilding AI, an international research-creation lab, explores human–machine collaboration by intentionally disrupting machine‑learning media tools. Toronto collaborators Beth Coleman and Debashis Sinha lead an expansion and exploration of artistic approaches to technological interference.

Presentation: Call & Response <> Vedran Dzebic: Design, Creativity & Empathic AI
May 14, 2026, 6:30pm

Cognitive neuroscientist Vedran Dzebic, Research Director at Entro Design, discusses how emerging technologies can support empathic, human-centred environments.

Talk: Call & Response <> Mark Campbell: Remix as the B-side of Datafication
May 27, 2026, 6:30pm

DJ, scholar, and curator Mark Campbell examines equity and accountability in data collection and analysis. Drawing on remix histories—from dub and disco to reggaeton, jungle, and hip-hop—he explores how sampling practices resist datafication and protect cultural expression. Campbell is founder of the Northside Hip-Hop Archive and Afrosonic Innovation Lab and Program Director of Music at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

Curated by Jutta Brendemühl. Accompanied by an artist essay and digital reading room.

Call & Response <> is the Goethe-Institut Toronto’s cross-disciplinary series exploring core programming questions in dialogue with international and local artists.

Part of the 2026 program (re)Open Minds: Adapting to the Future and celebrating 75 Years of Diplomatic Relations between Germany and Canada

Follow, tag & talk to the Goethe-Institut on Instagram @goetheinstitut_toronto #GoetheTO #reOpenMinds.

Goethe-Institut Toronto
100 University Ave, North Tower, 2nd Floor
Toronto, ON M5J 1V6

Exhibition Hours: Wednesday – Friday, 11am – 5pm

Program & Media Contact:
Jutta Brendemühl
Program Curator
Goethe-Institut Toronto
jutta.brendemuehl@goethe.de

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