A Sea of Data Hito Steyerl

Hito Steyerl: A Sea of Data at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Asia, sharing 23 of her most representative works from her early video works in the 1990s, which took the form of film essays with a documentary quality such as Germany and Identity (1994) and The Empty Centre (1998), to her most recent video works reflecting on digital technology (including the internet, virtual reality, robot engineering, and artificial intelligence) within its relationship to human beings and society. In particular, this exhibition will mark the first presentation of Animal Spirits (2022), a new work commissioned by MMCA.

In her book Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War (2017), Hito Steyerl explains that expressions of our lives today are reflected in data traces, which are managed, cultivated, and mined by information, life, and politics. She also notes how our perception of the world today depends less on eyesight than on our recognition of patterns in data interpretation and processing—like looking at the world through the lens of Google Maps. With her satirical reference to AI as “artificial stupidity,” she urges us to reconsider the newly transformed digitally based world from a more reflective angle, rather than accepting it unconditionally. Additionally, she shares her critical views on the contemporary art museum and new forms of art that operate in simulated virtual spaces.

– National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea