© 2013 ch-arts
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Hito Steyerl
RED ALERT
"Red Alert" is the title of first solo show by Hito Steyerl in Switzerland. The name comes from the work she presented last year at Documenta in Kassel, comprising three computer screens with monochrome video stills in red. The US Homeland Security also uses the term "Red Alert", but as a code for the highest terror threat level.
"November" shows another reference to terrorism; we see a young friend of Hito's past that went to Kurdistan to join the women's army. That same army was joined with the labor party PKK and during a run in with the Turkish Army her friend was shot and killed.
Personal memory is also a theme in "Lovely Andrea" in which the artist returns to Japan, where she was a student. She searches for the bondage photographs that were made of her.
In "Journal No. 1" we go from personal memory to reflecting about the collective and visual memory, and its impact on the community. The name is taken from the first Bosnian news program in 1947, the original of which, along with the whole archive, was destroyed during the 1990s and the Balkan War.
The exhibition of Steyerl's work at the Kunsthalle shows the strength in the individual works yet also generates a broader understanding for the artist and the associations that are important to her visual language.
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