Introduction
In her works, the artist Hito Steyerl (*1966, Munich, Germany) often addresses political and social conflicts in a globalized world, interweaving them with local situations, which imparts to her works a special multidimensionality.
This also applies to The City of Broken Windows, an installation that Steyerl originally conceived for her exhibition in Turin (Castello di Rivoli, 2019). Opposite-facing monitors display short videos with a documentary character, each presenting different perspectives on window panes.
On the one side, it is about the visual and psychological impression that missing or destroyed windows create. According to the "broken windows theory", the more that buildings or streets show signs of neglect and destruction, the faster they deteriorate. An artist is presented from Camden, New Jersey (USA), who is working with local activists to close broken windows in buildings with wooden "replacement windows" to break the spiralling movement of the broken Glass windows theory.
On an opposite-facing monitor, windows in a laboratory-like sterile hall are deliberately smashed to produce the peculiar shattering sound of the window glass. In this way, an artificial intelligence is trained that can recognize the shattering of glass by means of the associated sound and report it accordingly. By means of a technical device, an attempt is thus made to respond to the broken Glass windows theory.
Separated from the outside, vertically one above the other, we live in safety in our cities, at a distance – in effect, behind glass – and can thus indulge in the illusion of an intact modern and civilized world. Where this intactness, where the Western gaze and where our supposed standards become fragile, where they are threatened with decay, sterile regularity and technology are called into action. The AI learns to sound the alarm when glass breaks – the authorities are called in.
On a further, textual level of meaning, Hito Steyerl addresses the sound of breaking glass as an act of violence, as it also occurs, to generate energy. In order to access the earth's resources, destruction occurs, glass is broken. Finally, The City of Broken Windows refers to the location, the rebuilt glass square of the museum, where one can speak of a sedimentation of broken windows: the area around the Brühl was among the most densely developed areas in Leipzig. In 1943, these rows of buildings were destroyed in an air raid, which was followed by demolition and post-war development and finally, starting in 1968, the redesign as Sachsenplatz. This in turn had to give way to today's cityscape and the new building of the MdbK with its glass façades. Thus the history of the place is marked by glass and broken glass.
Hito Steyerl
The City of Broken Windows
Museum of Fine Arts, Leipzig
Katharinenstraße 10
04109 Leipzig
Through October 15, 2023
www.mdbk.de