شاه مات I schāh māt I The King Is Dead – Läufer (Bishop)

With shāh māt, Michel Niknafs reconnects with his cultural heritage. The Persian title translates to "The King is Dead," the origin of our modern "checkmate": a declaration of defeat, the inevitable end of a game with no escape.
Niknafs' installation explores the tension between resignation and agency. It questions whether society has become mere spectators to an apparently lost game, or if we retain the will to act before reaching the point of no return.
Visitors become active participants in this experiment. Throughout the exhibition, they can purchase individual chess pieces, directly influencing the gameplay's trajectory. Ultimately, artificial intelligence uses the remaining pieces to determine the outcome: the artist playing white against the machine in black.
Yet the deeper question remains: who truly shapes the game? The collectors who consume and intervene, or the machine that simply reflects our own choices back to us?

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