Thinking of digital art I remembered an exhibition I saw at the Stedelijk Museum in 2022. It was I will survive, an overview of works by a German artist Hito Steyerl. The exhibition consisted mostly of video works presented in a scenography referring to the works’ content. Now that I reflect on this show, I notice how the medium Steyerl chooses is strongly connected to the themes she discusses making them self-referential. The works in the exhibition were curated according to three themes; game, image and money. Each work has assigned one of the motifs. They lead the viewer through the artist’s interests and reactions to social phenomena. Steyerl’s works can be seen as critiques of capitalism, commercialism, migration and nationalism. She also responds to the mass of information and images people are confronted with every day. The exhibition format responded to the overstimulation theme covered in the artist’s practice.
Mass of Images and Comfy Sofas
Hito Steyerl makes video works consisting of found images or video essays made by herself. As the artist explains; she uses the internet “as a source of ready-made material“. The use of video essays and performative lectures allows Steyerl to confront current political events and social issues. I remember being very overwhelmed by the amount of images and works shown in the exhibition. It seemed like Steyerl’s choice of form was so overstimulating that it could not be fully grasped, which I think communicated her message perfectly. Ed Halter commented that Steyerl’s work is; ”exploring the political dimension of the production and distribution of images”.
Most of the works presented in the exhibition were surrounded by scenography relating to the content of the videos. Steyerl’s works could be viewed from a comfortable armchair or big beanbags. This setup made me feel taken care of and safe, however, the comfort brought by the objects surrounding the work was highly contrasting with the videos’ content. I see this curatorial choice as a little trickery on the audience, tempting them to confront themselves with uncomfortable truths shown in the videos.
Images about Images
I think that the choice of format made by Steyerl communicates her interest in the digital society as well as critiques it. Her choice of images is connected to the contemporary world linking it to the digital space. In her video essays, she discusses the use of images as a tool for manipulation. She links the themes of digital images to power relations between the viewer and the maker, which I think is very ironic as she contributes to this discourse with her work. This makes her work humorous and lets the viewer look at the serious topic she raises with a grain of salt.
To conclude, the works made by Hito Steyerl strongly correspond with the digital world that people are a part of as well as the struggle of getting out of it. Her self-referential videos become a powerful political tool for speaking about the absurdity of the contemporary world.
Hito Steyerl, Liquidity Inc., 2015, video installation, Stedelijk Museum 2022
Sources:
Halter, Ed. 2015. Parkett, No. 97, 2015. Zurich: Parkett-Verlag AG.
Steyerl, Hito. 2016. “What Is Contemporary? A Conversation With Hito Steyerl”. Youtube.Com. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNW1PP-034Q.
Thanks for posting about this exhibition! I also visit “I Will Survive” and found it to be an extraordinary showcase of digital art and activism.
While I also appreciated the self-referential quality of some works ,I was most taken by the immersive nature of the exhibition and the level of sensory overload achieved through the use of reference and media. Especially the work titled like the exhibition “I will survive”, a large-scale augmented reality, which immersed the visitor into her dystopian digital worldview, in which peoples’ lives are engineered by technology. I thought the exhibition evoked a hopeful energy but one that begged the audience to contemplate the ominous source of global peril. Is it the government, digital capitalism, society, media or oneself?