Introduction
The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is presenting the first comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the artist, filmmaker, and author Hito Steyerl. Steyerl is currently regarded as one of the most advanced artists in terms of the current reflection on the social role of art and museums, the development of artificial intelligence, and experimentation with media-based forms of presentation. With early works exemplary of the “documentary turn”, the exhibition begins with a different conception of the documentary, the conceptual change of which Steyerl has decisively co-conceived, formulated, and practiced.
Another key aspect of Steyerl’s work is the mutations of camera images over the past thirty years, from the development from analog images and their manifold montages to the shared, increasingly fluid image of the digital information age. In her most recent works, Steyerl takes a critical look at how art is increasingly becoming the object of investment and speculation, determined and driven by large galleries and powerful oligarchs. The concept of public art, to which Steyerl lays claim, thus takes on a new meaning.
A cooperation organized by Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf and Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.