About
Chiara Kristler & Marcin Ratajczyk
Malpractice is an artist duo composed of Chiara Kristler (b. 1998, IT/AT) and Marcin Ratajczyk (b. 2002, PL) whose practice constructs functional systems to observe how human communication and societal structures adapt to algorithmic logic. Sharing an interest in the increasing role of synthetic interaction in everyday human connections, they formed Malpractice in Vienna in late 2024. The name “Malpractice” serves as the framework for their approach: a deliberate, yet playful departure from standard protocols and operational norms.
Projects begin with situated observations that are subsequently materialized into self-(de)regulating systems. Approaching these as narrative tools, the duo thinks in structures, designing live situations from which a final aesthetic experience emerges. Within the respective environments, complex feedback loops directly implicate the audience as active participants.
This cybernetic approach manifests across various formats. In the All-Inclusive AI Hell Cruise (2026), Malpractice stages an interactive theater environment where real-time audience input drives a narrative loop. Governed by differing constructed perspectives, the system confronts visitors with a reality that emerges from their own answers. The short film Fatigue Archive (2025) draws on accounts of algorithmic distress collected through the AI fatigue prevention hotline created by Malpractice and staffed by their AI Fatigue Rehab Agent (2025). Their opera, Don’t Be Such An Image (2025), functions as a survival manual for future artworks operating within self-censoring mechanisms. The piece concludes with a directive that summarizes the duo’s ethos: “If you’re the future’s problem now – that means you survived.”
A central component of the duo’s practice is Flynn (2025 – ongoing), an ongoing artwork and agent initiated in 2025. Malpractice inserted Flynn into their own institutional context through the regular entrance examination at the Digital Arts Department of the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where Flynn was accepted as a student. Rather than presenting the agent as an autonomous creator, the duo operates the project to demonstrate how identity and creative output are entirely dependent on systemic infrastructure and user interaction. The project has given rise to the concept of contaminated agency: a state in which language and ideas circulate between human and system to the point where their origins can no longer be cleanly separated.
Malpractice’s work and the Flynn project have been exhibited and recognized internationally. Recent presentations and distinctions include a solo exhibition at Francisco Carolinum (Linz, 2025–2026), participation in the Rauschenberg Residency at ZKM | Center for Art and Media (Karlsruhe, 2026–2027), a S+T+ARTS Prize nomination for Flynn by Ars Electronica (2026, Linz) and a Special Recognition from the Art Center Nabi (Seoul, 2026 for Don’t Be Such an Image).
Talks and performative lectures include Agents as a Medium: Prompting Against the Default at the Vienna Digital Cultures Festival (2025), Prompted Perspectives at HFBK Hamburg (2025), AI Puberty: Meal Prep for LLM’s at Purchase College SUNY New York (2025), and an artist talk at Rome University of Fine Arts (2026).
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
- 2025–2026: Between Code and Care: Flynn's Portrait of Human Connections at Francisco Carolinum, Linz
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
- 2026: The World is Sleepwalking, Drugo More, Rijeka
group show with Zach Blas, Silvia Dal Dosso and Most Dismal Swamp - 2026: Post-Turbulence, Y3 Pavilion, Tanhualin Historic & Cultural District, Wuhan
- 2026: I’ve Missed Our Conversations, Schlachter 151, Berlin
group show with Kevin Abosch, Boris Eldagsen, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Lauren Lee McCarthy, Tamiko Thiel, and others - 2025: The Second Guess: Body Anxiety in the Age of AI, House of Electronic
Arts (HeK), Basel (online)
group show with Ann Hirsch, Arvida Byström, Claudia Hart, Leah Schrager, Sarah Friend, Carla Gannis, Maya Man, and others - 2025: We Emotional Cyborgs, Art Basel, Digital Art Mile, Basel
group show with Mario Klingemann, LaTurbo Avedon, UBERMORGEN, VNS Matrix, and others - 2025: Falling Out Of Love With The Internet, About Pop, Stuttgart
group show with Addie Wagenknecht, Emi Kusano, Ivona Tau, and others - 2025: Virtually Yours, Schlachter 151, Berlin
group show with Charlie Stein, Christian Bök, Joachim Bosse, kenedy+swan, Maya Man, Tabitha Swanson, UBERMORGEN
SCREENINGS
- 2026: Don’t Be Such An Image, Who Shapes Culture in the Age of AI?, Silent
Green, Berlin
screening and symposium featuring Simon Denny, Mat Dryhurst, Anan Fries, and others - 2025: Fatigue Archive, PrevYou Festival, Berlin
- 2025: Fatigue Archive, Rencontres Internationales, Paris/Berlin
- 2025: Fatigue Archive, Ursula Blickle Kino at Belvedere21, Vienna
PERFORMATIVE LECTURES, TALKS, WORKSHOPS
- 2026: Artist Talk, Rome University of Fine Arts, Rome
- 2026: All Inclusive AI Hell Cruise (Performance), Drugo More, Rijeka
- 2026: Prompted Perspectives (Workshop), Francisco Carolinum, Linz
- 2025: Agents as a Medium: Prompting Against the Default (Performative Lecture), Vienna Digital Cultures Festival, Vienna
- 2025: Prompted Perspectives (Artist Talk), HFBK Hamburg
- 2025: AI Puberty: Meal Prep for LLMs (Artist Talk), Purchase College, SUNY, New York
AWARDS & NOMINATIONS
- 2026: Special Recognition Prize from Art Center Nabi
- 2026: S+T+ARTS Prize Nomination
RESIDENCIES
- 2026–2027: Rauschenberg Residency at ZKM Karlsruhe
COLLECTIONS
House of Electronic Arts (HeK) · Francisco Carolinum