Hito Steyerl: Factory of the Sun

When Factory of the Sun has created excitement at exhibition spaces around the world, it is because the installation is much more than just a video on a screen. As a matter of fact, you’re physically stepping into the art work, which is contained in a black box specially build for the purpose, with a luminous grid as seen in the sci-fi classic Tron.

From a deckchair you can watch the central part of the installation – a 23-minute-long movie projected on a big screen – and become enveloped by the soundtrack. Factory of the Sun is a total experience you can immerse yourself in.

In Factory of the Sun Steyerl deals especially with how technology and images can be used for surveillance and to suppress a part of the population, but also to fight back against the system.

Through an absurd story – created by a mix of news coverage, documentaries, video games and dance videos, a story about workers, who are forced to create sunlight by moving in a motion-caption studio is told.

The workers have a chance to fight back against those in power by dancing instead of just performing the physical movements, they are instructed to in the game Factory of the Sun. However, the lines between game and reality are blurred, and the fight about light and energy takes place not only in the game, but also in the reality of the story.

Hito Steyerl (b. 1966 in Munich) is regarded as one of the most influential contemporary artists in these years. She has exhibited all over the world from Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Chisenhale Gallery, London and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid to Artists Space, New York, Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane and the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea.

Hito Steyerl’s importance is underlined by the fact, that she was recently ranked the 7th most influential person in the contemporary art world in a listing made by ArtReview, a leading, international art journal.