# Contxt

> Contxt is an applied intelligence lab for art and culture. We research data and discourse across institutions, themes and geographies, and distill it into citation-grounded, applied knowledge — living archives that help people map the connections between artworks, artists, movements and ideas.

## Our process

Every Contxt project is the same pipeline, four stages deep:

- **Aggregate Sources**: What already exists, in whatever form it exists — from a collection database of 250,000 objects to a film about a single work.
- **Map Knowledge**: Claims about entities and objects such as exhibitions, artists, and works, each traced to a verifiable source. Where sources disagree, competing claims sit side by side.
- **Build Index**: The agentic system that structures the knowledge — linking works, artists, and themes across time — keeps it current, and learns from every question it can't yet answer.
- **Design Applications**: The index applied through different surfaces for different use cases, always grounded in citation-ready claims and institutional voice.

In practice with bitforms gallery: 25 years of press releases, catalogues, wall texts, and exhibition records became 155 exhibitions, 168 artists, and 1,279 artworks — every claim cited, connected by curatorial narrative, and applied as a browsable archive, a guide visitors talk to, and an analytics layer the gallery learns from.

## Current Projects

- [Hans Ulrich Obrist](https://contxt.art/huo): An independent, attributable archive of 1,681 entries spanning 1991–2026, each verified against at least one of 1,793 cited sources. Search and filter by type and decade.
- [Roman Churches](https://contxt.art/rome-index): 1,610 churches, from early Christian basilicas to Baroque masterpieces, in Rome — a visual index with photographs, a map, and the artists who worked in each.
- [New York Art Week](https://contxt.art/nyc): 365 exhibitions, 667 artists, 252 venues in one conversational guide. Visitors ask about topics that interest them; the index recommends exhibitions and serves the location data to get them there.
- [Venice Biennale](https://contxt.art/venice): 208 exhibitions, 941 artists, 190 venues across the 61st Biennale, organized into thematic pathways with conversational discovery and a map.
- [bitforms gallery](https://contxt.art/bitforms): 155 exhibitions, 168 artists, 1,279 artworks across 25 years. Visitors photograph a work in the gallery and talk to its history through chat and voice, or explore the full archive online.

## Applications

Knowledge is only as good as how you let people access it. Every Contxt application is grounded in the same knowledge, applied differently:

- **The Visual Archive**: Every exhibition and artwork, visible at a glance — images, people, narratives and locations. The most basic application of the knowledge, built for overview and accessibility.
- **Contxt for Exhibitors**: The workspace where institutions run the pipeline themselves. Add what you've already published — files, websites, catalogues — and Contxt's agents distill and index it. Deploy a guide that answers visitors in your voice, and learn from what they ask.
- **Chat & Voice Guide for Visitors**: Visitors ask anything about any work — in their own language, at their own pace, in the gallery or long after. Answers cite the knowledge, never the open internet.
- **Research Tool for Institutions**: The same knowledge turned inward — curators and staff query decades of programming while preparing the next exhibition, catalogue, or loan.
- **Event Guides for Cities**: Knowledge at the scale of a biennale or an art week — thematic pathways, recommendations, and real-time location across hundreds of venues.

## Use Contxt

- [Indexes](https://contxt.art/products/indexes) (bespoke): Commissioned research on a subject worth knowing deeply — a curator's life's work, a city's churches, a biennale. Contxt sources the knowledge, builds the index, and designs the applications. Contact: info@contxt.art
- [Contxt for Exhibitors](https://contxt.art/products/exhibitors) (self-serve): Unlock Contxt for your own exhibition program — from the first upload to a conversational visitor application, in under an hour. Currently running with bitforms gallery as the first public deployment.

## Press

- [Fad Magazine](https://fadmagazine.com/2026/05/01/contxt-venice-navigate-venice-biennale-2026/) - May 2026: "Contxt Venice feels less like a guidebook and more like a new curatorial tool - one that could fundamentally change how large-scale art events are experienced."
- [Observer](https://observer.com/2026/04/arts-interview-lukas-amacher-ai-app-museum-galleries/) - April 2026: Christa Terry interviews co-founder Lukas Amacher on building a chatbot for the art world.
- [Outland](https://outlandart.substack.com/p/from-blogs-to-bots) - April 2026: Sarah Hromack traces the arc from museum blogs to AI interpretation tools, placing Contxt among the startups using generative AI to guide visitors through artworks in the gallery and beyond.

## News

- [Contxt arrives in New York for Art Week](https://contxt.art/news/contxt-nyc-launch): May 12, 2026 - Announcement. Contxt launches in New York for NYC Art Week 2026, connecting 360+ exhibitions across 250+ museums, galleries, and project spaces.
- [Contxt and FITZ & CO launch geo-intelligence for Venice](https://contxt.art/news/contxt-fitz-venice-launch): May 1, 2026 - Announcement. FITZ & CO and Contxt announce Contxt Venice, spanning 208 exhibitions and 941 artists at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2026.
- [Contxt in Observer: Building a Chatbot for the Art World](https://contxt.art/news/observer-interview): April 21, 2026 - Press coverage of co-founder Lukas Amacher's interview in Observer's Arts section.
- [Introducing the Public Research Preview in collaboration with bitforms](https://contxt.art/news/research-preview): April 9, 2026 - Announcement of the Public Research Preview of Contxt in collaboration with bitforms gallery.
- [Contxt in Outland: From Blogs to Bots](https://contxt.art/news/outland-from-blogs-to-bots): April 2, 2026 - Press coverage. Sarah Hromack maps the evolution from museum blogs to AI interpretation tools and places Contxt among the startups defining what comes next.

## Partners

- [FITZ & CO](https://fitz-co.com): Cultural strategy firm with longstanding involvement in Venice Biennale projects, including national pavilions, collateral, and off-site exhibitions. Contxt Venice launch partner. Teams in New York, Los Angeles, and London.
- [bitforms](https://bitforms.art): New York-based gallery championing digital art and new media for 25 years. Public Research Preview launch partner.

## Company

- Contxt is built by Lore Labs AG.

## Contact

- Email: info@contxt.art
- Instagram: @contxt_archive
- X: @contxt_archive