09/04/2026
Work by unfolding in the stream.
Valentina Gal’s practice centres on the relationship between humans and animals, the hyperreality constructed by media, and the ways technology reshapes contemporary life. We inhabit a world that places the human at its core, at the top of a hierarchy that grows increasingly hard to defend. Encountering posthumanism opened up a different way of thinking for her: one that questions the boundaries we draw between species and asks what it truly means to be human.
In an era when world leaders hack one another and social media imposes impossible standards of self-presentation, Gal asks: what can still be called ‘real’? Through immersive video installations that oscillate between everyday reality and the distorted hyperreality of the digital world, she probes the limits of what we accept as truth.
As an avid gamer, Gal is intimately familiar with the dynamics of online communities. Through platforms like Twitch and Reddit, she explores subcultures including the furry fandom, cosplayers, and, in her installation The Brightest Flame Casts the Darkest Shadow, the world of VTubers (Virtual YouTubers). The internet offers a degree of freedom for self-expression, while simultaneously lowering the threshold for criticism and hostility. At the centre of this tension sits the avatar: with a live filter, streamers can conceal their identity while building a unique hybrid digital persona. The installation itself operates as such an avatar, a filter placed over physical space that illuminates the world of online streaming while exposing its darker dimensions.
Working with installations allows Gal to draw viewers into the work without requiring prior knowledge. She wants people to see through someone else’s eyes, from a different vantage point, and to immerse themselves fully in a reality that is not their own.
