‘Digital Era, Art's Self-Validation’ Hito Steyerl's First Solo Exhibition in Asia

Contemporary German Media Artist Spotlighted by Art World
'Sea of Data' Opens at National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul on 29th
New Works Including 'Yaseongjeok Chungdong' Premiered, 23 Key Works Including Early Videos Exhibited

Hito Steyerl. Photo by National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] Two years before the Russian invasion, a pro-Russian separatist group in the eastern Ukrainian city of Konstantynivka repurposed old Soviet tanks. Tanks used during World War II were pulled down from their monument pedestals and immediately deployed to the battlefield. Media critic Hito Steyerl commented on this incident, saying, "Is a museum a garage? Or an armory? In a situation where history invades the present, art museums must respond with duty-free art."

The controversial artist Hito Steyerl is holding her first large-scale solo exhibition in Asia at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) Seoul. Tracing the new grammar of images produced within the digital society and offering philosophical and critical insights into the relationships among technology, capital, art, and society, she is both a critic and an artist who has exhibited at the Venice Biennale, Documenta Kassel, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

The exhibition theme, "The Sea of Data," sheds new light on the digital data-based society, which has become another reality today. The artist analyzes the ontology of images in accelerated global capitalism, digital society, and the post-internet era, as well as their political and social contexts, presenting key issues related to media, images, and technology.

Hito Steyerl, Yudongseong Corporation, 2014. Photo by National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

In particular, in this exhibition, the artist poses questions to the audience such as: "Can technology save humanity amid the whirlpools of various disasters and wars we face today?", "How has the digital visual system changed our perception of humans and society?", and "What is the role of contemporary art museums in an era marked by global civil wars, increasing inequality, and monopolized digital technologies?" Through dialogue with the audience via her works, the artist offers opportunities for reflection and contemplation on the new images, visuality, worldview created by digital culture within digital capitalism and networked spaces, as well as the role and status of contemporary art museums.

The first part of the exhibition, "The Sea of Data," introduces the artist's major works dealing with image production and circulation, data labor, and the situation of contemporary art museums within the digital technology-based network society, including (2015), (2018), (2019), (2019), (2020), and (2022).

Hito Steyerl, Tower, 2015 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art exhibition view 2022)

The second part, "Not Showing ? Digital Visuality," centers on the representative work (2013), questioning the hierarchy between what is visible and invisible in a digital world where data is massively collected and registered, and surveillance cameras are everywhere, while analyzing the peculiarities of the digital visual system.

A related screening program featuring Hito Steyerl's early video works will also be held. Seven early video works that form the basis of the artist's documentary perspective, including (1998), (2004), and (2007), will be screened at MMCA Film & Video from May 27 to July 17.

Hito Steyerl, Factory of the Sun, 2015 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art exhibition view 2022)

Instead of assembling images circulating at a distance, Steyerl dives into the dizzying collapse of representation. The artist says, "I am not trying to resolve this contradiction. I want to intensify it." At the end of the intensified contradiction lies a clearer imprint of awareness as an entity capable of exposing manipulation, exploitation, and affect, and the will to act.

The exhibition runs from the 29th to September 18 at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul.

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