C/O Berlin presents the exhibition “Sheung Yiu . (Inter)faces of Predictions”, winner of the C/O Berlin Talent Award 2025. The exhibition runs from February 7 to June 10, 2026, with the opening on Friday, February 6, 2026 at 8 pm at C/O Berlin in Amerika Haus.

“Facial reading is in many ways fatal reading. As the imperative for facial reading has moved from the spiritual through to the economical, human agency only appears to have progressively deteriorated with it.”

Megan Williams . C/O Berlin Talent Award 2025 – Theorist

In his long-term project, Finland-based artist researcher Sheung Yiu (b. 1991, HKG) investigates how faces have been used across cultures and technologies over time to predict character traits and an individual’s future.

Using his own face, Yiu portrays how similar patterns of thought have been reinforced over the centuries, such as trust in legible signs, a need for order and predictability, and the latent dangers of stereotypical assumptions. He brings together traditional East Asian practices of face reading, Western theories of physiognomy, and cutting-edge facial recognition technologies. In doing so, the artist calls attention to increasingly urgent questions in an era of large-scale computer vision models, anthropometric assessment, and data-based monitoring.

This multimedia exhibition condenses a complex interplay of photographs, found footage, object-based installations, and a video essay, making tangible the diverse aspects of face reading and facial recognition. The “ouroboros”, a symbol depicting a serpent eating its own tail, is a recurring motif, shaping the spatial design of the exhibition, which forms a circular tour. The “ouroboros”, is a metaphor for circular logic and highlights how patterns are repeated in an endlessly circulated system of belief across history as well as the feedback loops and data streams feeding machine learning and creating new systems of classification.

Yiu’s visual archaeology of facial analysis draws on a vast array of found footage. Referencing Aby Warburg’s “Mnemosyne Atlas”, the material shows a visual culture developing at the intersection of spiritual readings, pseudoscientific classifications, and technical optimization.

The artist uses prints on calligraphy paper and text fragments engraved into stone in order to offer connections to materials historically used in the East Asian tradition to convey knowledge. They are displayed alongside metallic, illuminated, and reflective surfaces characteristic of technological materials and offer a contrast. Together with his own photographs, Yiu weaves a porous and associative network that interlinks past and present, art and science.

Finally, a video essay presents the artist as an avatar traversing a landscape later revealed to be his own face. In a voiceover, Yiu reflects on the history of facial recognition up to and including current developments including deep fakes and synthetic face images. His penetrating work reveals the growing power algorithms hold over our identities while inviting viewers to question our faith in what we believe is an objective gaze, whether it be spiritual, scientific, or algorithmic.

C/O Berlin presents “(Inter)faces of Predictions”, the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition in Germany, accompanied by an extensive publication. Curated by Veronika Epple.

Since 2020, the C/O Berlin Talent Award has been made possible by the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung.

Sheung Yiu (b. 1991, HKG/FI) is a Hong-Kong-born, image-centered artist and researcher based in Helsinki. His artwork explores imaging practices emerging at the intersection of photography and large-scale computation. At the moment, he is looking at the history of face reading and facial recognition in order to understand how photographs become predictions. His works take the form of photographs, video essays, desktop performances, exhibition installations, and artist books.

Megan Williams (b. 1995, UK) is an arts writer, editor, and researcher based in London. Her writing has been published by Guardian, Elephant, CNN, and Creative Review, where she was a member of the editorial team between 2019 and 2025. In 2024, she presented her research about visualizing unrest in the age of AI at a symposium held by the Photographers’ Gallery and the University of Westminster in London. She is interested in artistic practices and critical theory exploring the relationship between image-making, technology, and culture, including related ethical considerations such as bias and autonomy.

Simultaneous exhibitions at C/O Berlin:
Graciela Iturbide . Eyes to Fly With
Dörte Eißfeldt . Archipelago