Introduction

For Gallery Weekend Berlin 2023 Esther Schipper is pleased to present Hito Steyerl's first solo exhibition with the gallery. On view will be a site-specific iteration of her 2022 environment Animal Spirits adapted to the exhibition space. Animal Spirits is a video installation consisting of a film and a live computer-generated animation as well as spatial installation elements. It premiered in the artist’s solo exhibition A Sea of Data at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, 2022. The film and the animation are projected on custom-built, surround screens which create a room within the cave-like exhibition space. Hanging suspended from the ceiling are spherical glass containers with LED growth lamps shining on plants and soil. The planting and maintenance of the plants is handled in cooperation with the transcultural community garden Hevrîn Xelef, and the NGO Flamingo e.V., a network for refugee women and children.

Apart from plants, the glass spheres also contain sensors that measure proxies for plant health as well as react to proximity of visitors in the space. The data gathered by the sensors influence a light-sparkling cloud of particles, travelling through what looks like a natural cave. A narrative video interlaces scenes shot with the German actor Mark Waschke impersonating the economist John Maynard Keynes, with historical film footage, animation, motion graphics and documentary interviews, conducted by Steyerl with shepherds in Northern Spain as well as a group of fellow artists. It touches on topics of post-pandemic conditions of cultural production, the boom of cryptocurrencies and NFT art, and possibilities for systems of decentralization and autonomy, inspired by biological systems behind fermentation.

The glass spheres in the exhibition are being sold to raise funds for relief efforts following the severe earthquake in Turkey and northern Syria. All proceeds from these sales will be donated through Hevrîn Xelef/Flamingo e.v. to Jinwar, the women's village in Rojava, Northern Syria and personally delivered there to build a health center.

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