Hito Steyerl: Mission Accomplished : Belanciege
Past exhibition
Overview
For its spring exhibition, BANK proudly presents "Mission Accomplished: Belanciege", a video installation by Berlin-based artist Hito Steyerl. This is the artist's second solo exhibition at BANK. The exhibition will be on view from 10 March 2023 until 6 May 2023, and will subsequently travel to DANGXIA Art Space in Beijing.
Hito Steyerl (b. 1966, Germany) is one of today's most influential media artists. Through a diverse practice spanning film, writing, teaching jand performance, she explores digital technologies, global capitalism, and other controversial social and cultural phenomena. Steyerl is an insightful thinker in the realms of art, philosophy, and politics, and her views on media, images, and technologies have been published widely. In 2017, Steyerl was the first woman to top the ArtReview Power 100 for her "political statement-making and formal experimentation."
"Mission Accomplished: Belanciege" is a performance lecture by Hito Steyerl in collaboration with Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze, and Miloš Trakilović, which situates fashion labels Balenciaga and Vetements at the center of reflections on European political and cultural changes after the fall of the Berlin Wall. They compare the fame of these fashion brands to the spread of neo-liberalism in the former Eastern Bloc, claims of manipulation in the US presidential elections, and other political events. Advocated by a humorously-cut visual presentation and Mikk Madisson's soundtrack, the lecture incisively identifies how political advertising uses online fashion data to define target audiences and how high-end fashion designers appropriate and privatize the aesthetics of low-income groups. The work is part of Steyerl's long-term explorations of contemporary capitalist conditions, consumer culture, and commodification mechanisms.
Initially conceived during Steyerl's second solo show at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) in 2019, "Mission Accomplished: Belanciege" has since been shown at the Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna, the Munch Museet in Oslo, the MMCA in Seoul, and other noted art institutions.
This traveling exhibition in China is made possible with the generous support of The M Art Foundation and DANGXIA Art Space.
Text by Yuan Fuca
Hito Steyerl (b. 1966, Germany) is one of today's most influential media artists. Through a diverse practice spanning film, writing, teaching jand performance, she explores digital technologies, global capitalism, and other controversial social and cultural phenomena. Steyerl is an insightful thinker in the realms of art, philosophy, and politics, and her views on media, images, and technologies have been published widely. In 2017, Steyerl was the first woman to top the ArtReview Power 100 for her "political statement-making and formal experimentation."
"Mission Accomplished: Belanciege" is a performance lecture by Hito Steyerl in collaboration with Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze, and Miloš Trakilović, which situates fashion labels Balenciaga and Vetements at the center of reflections on European political and cultural changes after the fall of the Berlin Wall. They compare the fame of these fashion brands to the spread of neo-liberalism in the former Eastern Bloc, claims of manipulation in the US presidential elections, and other political events. Advocated by a humorously-cut visual presentation and Mikk Madisson's soundtrack, the lecture incisively identifies how political advertising uses online fashion data to define target audiences and how high-end fashion designers appropriate and privatize the aesthetics of low-income groups. The work is part of Steyerl's long-term explorations of contemporary capitalist conditions, consumer culture, and commodification mechanisms.
Initially conceived during Steyerl's second solo show at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) in 2019, "Mission Accomplished: Belanciege" has since been shown at the Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna, the Munch Museet in Oslo, the MMCA in Seoul, and other noted art institutions.
This traveling exhibition in China is made possible with the generous support of The M Art Foundation and DANGXIA Art Space.
Text by Yuan Fuca
Installation Views
Works
