"The Island" Exhibition by Hito Steyerl at Osservatorio Fondazione Prada
Hito Steyerl brings "The Island" to the Osservatorio, turning the gallery into a space where we can think about the mess of our modern world. Opening tomorrow, this project feels deeply personal yet wide in scope. Steyerl looks at how we deal with big problems like the climate crisis and the way AI starts to control our lives. She uses the idea of a flood to show how things can feel like they are drowning, but she also looks for ways to stay afloat.
The heart of the work comes from a story about a young boy in 1941. During a bombing, he imagined himself inside a Flash Gordon movie to escape the fear. This moment of imagination taught him that even when things are at their worst, we can picture a different way to live. Steyerl takes this idea and runs with it, using quantum physics to show that many different realities can exist at the same time. She wants us to see that the world we have right now is not the only one possible.
The exhibition fills two floors with films, interviews, and objects made of driftwood. You will hear from scientists and historians, but you will also see the beauty of old songs and ancient artifacts. Steyerl talks about "junk time", that feeling of being tired and distracted by our phones and jobs, and compares it to "deep time," which is the slow, calm rhythm of the earth and the ocean. By the time you reach the top floor and sit in the red cinema seats, you might start to feel that slower pulse. It is a reminder that there is a much bigger story happening than just the one we see on our screens.
“We spend so much time in the rush of the digital world that we forget the slow, quiet rhythm of the earth.”
Hito Steyerl uses AI in a way that feels very personal. Instead of using it to make things look perfect, she focuses on the mistakes and the "digital mess" the computer makes. She believes these errors show us how technology can sometimes twist the truth or make life feel flat. By using these modern tools to look at ancient ruins deep under the sea, she creates something unexpected. She shows us that even though technology is all around us, it cannot truly capture the spirit of being human. She uses the machine to remind us that our world is much bigger and more mysterious than any computer program.
Interview by DONALD GJOKA
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