Hito Steyerl
Hito Steyerl was born in 1966 in Munich, Germany, and lives in Berlin. A filmmaker and writer, her prolific work operates between art, philosophy, and politics, addressing global capitalism and cultural imaginaries. She has had solo exhibitions at the Singapore Art Museum (2024), the Portland Art Museum (2023), the Kunsthaus Graz (2022), MMCA Seoul (2022), the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2022), Centre Pompidou Paris (2021), the Park Avenue Armory New York (2019), the Kunstmuseum Basel (2018), ICA Boston (2017), and MOCA Los Angeles (2016). Group exhibitions include the Venice Biennale (2007, 2015, 2019, 2024), documenta 12 (2007), and Manifesta 5 (2004). Her writings are collected in The Wretched of the Screen (2012) and Duty Free Art (2017).
THE LEAK
202
45-channel video (color, sound), installation with pipeline structure, 21′14″
Ed. 1/7 (7+2AP)
Director: Hito Steyerl
Research: Philipp Goll
Idea and visual research: Oleksiy Radynski
Post-production: Christoph Manz
Installation: Manuel Reinartz
Production: Luba Knorozok for Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig
Courtesy of the artist, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul
In the 5-channel installation The Leak, Hito Steyerl exposes how gas flows, propaganda, and conspiracy theories intertwine. Central is the history of the Nord Stream pipeline and its predecessors. The video narrative also explores how the so-called “cultural pipeline” between the Soviet Union, now the Russian Federation, and (West) Germany has been a crucial part of the promotion of fossil fuel infrastructure. The Leak unveils the connection between the dominant culture, colonialism, and environmental destruction in the Russian-occupied territories of the native peoples of Siberia.