A cycle of 14 songs traversing the emotional and existential landscapes of contemporary life, blending personal vulnerability with reflections on technology, alienation, and longing. The lyrics move from intimate scenes of everyday despair ("Domestic Despair") to the ache of lost love and memory, and into surreal, almost dystopian territories ("Fomo Prompter", "Wo die Nacht wohnt").
Several songs — "Our Lives – Not Our Lives" and "Lament Of The Loverbot" — explicitly engage with the blurred boundaries between human and machine, self and system. The collection balances poetic introspection with social commentary, echoing Gees' broader artistic practice. A lyrical exploration of what it means to feel, to yearn, and to be human (or almost human) in the 21st century.
A sustained body of painting using Procion fiber-reactive dyes — a material associated with textile dyeing — applied to cotton, canvas, and acrylic surfaces. The works range from large-scale studio pieces (500×300 cm, 2024) to smaller framed works (120×200 cm, 2025) and the Drippings series (Procion colors on acrylic table top, digital photography, 60×80 cm, 2023).
The technique produces unpredictable flows and bleeds, suspending the painter between intention and material accident. Exhibited at Haus zur Glocke, Zurich (2023) and Galerie Laleh June, Basel (2019–2020).
Laser projection during Engadin Art Talks at Hotel Castell, Zuoz, and at Tankkeller, Zurich. Alongside the projections, the NFT transaction hashes of kleee02 tokens were used to generate unique laser patterns, which were then exposed onto silk as cyanotypes — 1/1 works ca. 100×100 cm each.
kleee02 is a contemporary, blockchain-inspired take on conceptual art. Described in a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain (minted April 10, 2019), the piece allows anyone to participate by acquiring a unique kleee02 token. Each token's transaction hash serves as the variable in the kleee02 algorithm, generating a unique animation per strict rules embedded in the smart contract.
The name references Paul Klee's quote "a line is a dot that goes for a walk" — which describes, avant la lettre, how a laser works. By following the smart contract rules, other artists and coders are able to create further representations: digital prints, laser projections, videos.
The first NFT minted by Johannes Gees. The work deals with the question of tokenization of artworks — not only the transition from analog to digital unique piece, but the question of the original itself: is it the painted image that exists in analog space (before destruction)? Is it the digital image that receives wider reach via social media?
The finished painting is thrown into the sea and "washed" during a performance filmed as a proof of destruction. The analog original disappears, replaced by a blockchain-certified, digitally unique piece with a blockchain address controlled by the owner of the private key. Certified on the Bitcoin blockchain at block 0000000000000000001f7cb45083bb2765d7a8f642310cfc3546cda98581c840, January 29, 2019, 13:03:04 UTC.
A collaborative painting exhibition with Cris Faria. Large-scale dripped canvases produced through an exchange between two practices, shown at Galerie Laleh June, Basel, December 14, 2019 – February 29, 2020.
An exploration of two figures: the French Dadaist Jacques Rigaut and the American surfing legend Miki Dora. The stage is Hôtel Marienia in the Basque Guéthary, where artists and surfers have come and gone for over a hundred years — Man Ray, Miki Dora, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky.
"dorarigautruc" imagines a spiritual affinity between the two enigmatic figures. As their synthesis, the art figure "KIM DORA" emerges — appearing as the author of a Dadaist sound poem and in the body of (real) Nynny Haaholm, who wears a tattoo of Jacques Rigaut. Created during a residency at Maison Marienia, Guéthary, July–October 2018.
An off-chain generative art piece developed for permanent installation in the garden of a collector in Zurich. kleee01 applies the platform's algorithmic rules to produce laser patterns in physical space, operating outside the blockchain while anticipating the logic of kleee02. The name references Paul Klee's "a line is a dot that goes for a walk."
The work begins with a simple question: what did Alfred Stieglitz see on that day in April 1917, in his studio, when he photographed Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" — the work that would become the 20th century's most influential artwork?
After months of research, Gees identified that the background of Stieglitz's photograph is not a wallpaper, as commonly assumed, but Marsden Hartley's painting "Warriors" — which bears striking formal resemblances to "Fountain." Without doubt, Stieglitz contextualised and reframed the readymade as proposed by Duchamp, even before the public had a chance to see it.
Performance work presented at Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich (with Director Adrian Notz), Palazzo Trevisan, Venice (2015, 2016), and as part of the Swiss Pavilion's Salon Suisse programme at the Venice Biennale.
Co-founded wemakeit.com, the crowdfunding platform that became market leader in Switzerland and Austria. An instance of applying collaborative and participatory thinking — central to Gees' artistic practice — to institutional and economic structures.
Final Fantasy toured as readymade across Switzerland: La Rada, Lugano; Galerie Luciano Fasciati, Chur; Kunstraum Kreuzlingen; Volta Art Fair, Basel; Frauenfeld (2009). Le jardin des mots perdus was presented at Evento, Bordeaux, October 2009.
A sound installation presented in the context of the exhibition Shifting Identities at Kunsthaus Zürich (2008) and CAC Vilnius (2009), as well as at OK-Zentrum Linz. The work provoked legal action: Gees was summoned to court for "disturbing religious peace." The case drew widespread press coverage and became part of the broader Swiss debate around the minaret referendum.
A mobile laser projection performed on the Sarine river in Fribourg, Switzerland, presented as part of Fri-Art Centre d'art contemporain's group exhibition Emotional Landscapes (2007).
Laser projection of a poem from a military truck, driving through the landscape of Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. Presented at Kunstraum Kreuzlingen (January–February 2006). The work uses military infrastructure as a carrier for poetic language, placing text into public and contested space.
Drown: laser projection of a poem under the Dreikönigsbrücke, Zürich (2006–2007). Migration Manifesto: laser projection at the Swiss–Italian border, Chiasso/Como (2006). Both works use the laser as an instrument for inscribing language onto charged sites — a bridge, a border.
Anyone, anywhere in the world, could send a message via the web — and see it projected in real time onto iconic public sites across four continents. 40,000 messages were received and projected at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, Morro Dois Irmãos in Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai Beach, and Geneva.
The project raised fundamental questions about public space, global connectivity, and who has the right to speak — and where. Covered by the Guardian, Wired, New York Times, NRC Handelsblad, and Sonntagszeitung (all 2003).
During the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, anyone could submit a message via the web and have it projected as a laser onto the snow-covered slopes surrounding the conference. 2,500 messages were projected over the course of the WEF — visible to delegates and passersby alike.
The work used the global spectacle of Davos as a stage for unfiltered public voice, inverting the logic of access and exclusion that defines the Forum. It received an Award of Distinction at Transmediale 2002, Berlin, and was covered in the New York Times, Kunstbulletin, and international press.
Gees' first major work: a collaborative online project enabling a visual dialogue between thousands of contributors worldwide. communimage.net operates as a collectively authored image — a living work in permanent construction, shaped by anyone who participates. It established the participatory, networked logic that would run through all of Gees' subsequent work.
