SocialSim (2020) absorbs viewers in an immersive space populated by 3D avatars such as uniformed police officers and workers in blue overalls who are activated in a “social choreography” modeled by data relating to police violence. As a counterpoint to the immersive environment Steyerl invites us on a frenetic gaming navigation through turbulent, parallel, and competing worlds linked to the simulation that is part of artificial intelligence’s networks.

Curated by: Ji-Yoon Han, MOMENTA Biennale de l’image

Hito Steyerl, SocialSim (video still), 2020
Single channel HD video, colour, sound, 18 min 19 s.
Courtesy of the artist, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023 © Hito Steyerl

Hito Steyerl, SocialSim (video still), 2020
Single channel HD video, colour, sound, 18 min 19 s.
Courtesy of the artist, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023 © Hito Steyerl

Hito Steyerl’s video, performance, and philosophical works expose, with invigorating force, the paradoxes of the virtualization of reality under the influence of digital image and media networks. The Berlin-based artist and theoretician invents highly tonic forms that create a narrative for what an image is and does today. Steyerl’s investigations target the often-militarized economies of images in a globalized world, the sibylline metaphors of digital capitalism, or the galloping privatization of public spaces such as art museums.

Partners

Exhibition presented by MOMENTA Biennale de l’image and produced in partnership with the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.

The exhibition is made possible thanks to the support of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.