Bengt Tibert :: BODIES OF WORK

The next Solo Release curated by Fakewhale on Verse presents BODIES OF WORK, a project by Bengt Tibert that stages a confrontation between spectacle, image, and language across twelve video works.

Developed through an intricate layering of generative tools, the series resists reduction to straightforward narrative. It operates simultaneously as visual theatre, critical fiction, and perceptual experiment, where the body appears monumental yet is unsettled by landscapes that oscillate between the sublime and the surreal.

At its foundation, BODIES OF WORK is a cycle of twelve videos, each orchestrating a paradox between exaggerated bodies, sublime terrains, and voices that falter into dissonant monologues. The figures resemble sculptural wrestlers, staged in environments inhabited by animals, atmospheres, and terrains that destabilize their apparent authority.

The body projects force, yet the spoken word collapses into fragility, producing a perceptual dissonance that transforms irony into a structural element. Out of this tension emerges a paradox where spectacle is amplified and simultaneously undone, generating a field in which meaning slips away rather than resolves.

Artificial intelligence plays a decisive role in shaping this condition. Conceived through a hybrid methodology that integrates Midjourney, Magnific, Krea, Gemini, Google VEO3, and OpenAI Sora, with voice synthesis from ElevenLabs and original sound composition by Tibert, the series employs AI not as neutral tool but as generative environment. Its detachment from semantic intention allows language to circulate without hierarchy, granting the artist a field where image and speech collide in productive contradiction.

Through this framework, BODIES OF WORK positions spectacle, irony, and perceptual tension as the operative forces of its construction. The monumental body, the destabilized landscape, and the fragile voice converge into a condition where meaning continuously fractures and recombines, resisting closure while amplifying instability.

To expand on these foundations, we engaged Bengt Tibert in a Dialog Flow that situates BODIES OF WORK within a broader conceptual and technical horizon. The exchange traces the origins of the project, the generative role of AI, and the ways in which spectacle and language are entangled in his practice.

Fakewhale: BODIES OF WORK situates exaggerated bodies within landscapes that shift between the sublime and the surreal, accompanied by voices that move in unexpected directions. What impulses or intuitions first guided you toward bringing these elements together?

Bengt Tibert: I like when something looks powerful but feels uncertain. Elements that don’t fit. Overbuilt bodies, like bad architecture, misplaced emotion, strange talk, they feel more interesting and honest than correct ones. Humor only works for me in a very narrow space, where it stops being funny and starts feeling real.

Fakewhale: The series stages a tension between physical spectacle and spoken language. How do you think about this relationship, and what kind of space does it open for interpretation?

Bengt Tibert: Sound is another layer that pulls the image apart. Without it, some pieces would just sit there, like static paintings. The voice or noise gives them a pulse, even when it’s off-beat. AI gets things wrong, and I like that. It reminds me of Dada, when logic falls apart and starts making sense again. The voice doesn’t explain. It disturbs.

Fakewhale: Artificial intelligence is central to your process, not only as a tool but as a generative environment. How do you approach AI in relation to authorship, and what possibilities does it unlock for you?

Bengt Tibert: I come from advertising, where collaboration is the rule. You work with people who are better than you at very specific things. Using AI feels similar, but now the team is infinite and always awake. I can step into any department, sound, image, script, in the same hour. The only real limit is time. I use AI across everything: ideas, visuals, sound, editing. It doesn’t replace the work, it expands the space where the work happens.

Fakewhale: Your videos evoke echoes of performance, media culture, and critical play, while also establishing a distinct visual and sonic vocabulary. Which artistic or cultural influences resonate most strongly within this project?

Bengt Tibert: It’s hard to name one source. It could be a news clip, an Ed Ruscha print, or a Paul McCarthy video. Nature and animals are also a big part of it. I spend time in random forums, listening to people explain the world in their own way. I build from fragments of their thoughts. I’m drawn to stupidity, it fascinates me. I think the mix of precision and absurdity sits at the core of what I do. The balance between something beautiful and something slightly off, that’s the tone I’m after.

Fakewhale: BODIES OF WORK creates a field where irony, spectacle, and perceptual tension coexist. How do you see this exploration evolving in your practice moving forward?

Bengt Tibert: Each project opens a side door. I follow what feels wrong, that’s usually the right direction. I keep the visuals tight and the emotion loose.

BODIES OF WORK extends the dialogue between Fakewhale and Verse, tracing how AI reshapes the construction of image, sound, and meaning. Through this release, Bengt Tibert opens a terrain where spectacle and irony evolve as parallel structures of perception.

LIVE October 15, 2025
6:00 PM CEST / 5:00 PM BST
12 unique 1/1 video works
English auction starting at 10 USD

Presented by Fakewhale on Verse

Enter the collection on the Verse page ↓