Hell Yeah We Fuck Die, 2016 and Robots Today, 2016, video installation
4 minutes, 35 seconds and 8 minutes, 2 seconds
At the moment, Hito Steyerl is one of the most influential artists. Hell Yeah We Fuck Die (the 5 most commonly used terms in song titles) shows us videos of high-tech companies testing robots on balance and endurance. The work can be read as a commentary on the profit-driven search for speed and efficiency. Also, Steyerl confronts us with our habit of seeing human characteristics in everything.
In the Robots Today video we see images of the Kurdish ghost town Cizre, which is located on the Syrian border. This city has often been the battlefield during tensions between the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and the Turkish government. It is also the birthplace of the scholar Ismail al-Jazari who, already in the 13th century, wrote an extensive reference work on mechanical devices and the innovations of that time. During the fragments, questions are asked to Apple’s chatbot Siri about the role of computer technology in contemporary wars.
Curated by the Van Abbemuseum
