The first major posthumous exhibition of Harun Farocki’s work in the UK will show his seminal video and new media art installations alongside the work of Hito Steyerl.
Harun Farocki and Hito Steyerl are bound by a special form of collaboration, beyond any space-time framework. Though they belong to quite different generations they share a stubborn critical attitude that dismantles the pervasive biopolitical regimes of late capitalism. When there is no hope for a better world their images open up a crack in the system of art, no matter how discredited it might be. Call it the pragmatism of the hopeless.
Their production unfolds in a world that accepts war and inequalities as basic conditions for a life style heavily dependent on asymmetrical realities. By bringing them together we get a unique opportunity to transcend their thematic obsessions and look into the details of a sounding critique. – Carles Guerra, 2020
The first major UK exhibition of Harun Farocki’s work in over a decade, Life Captured Still will explore the natural and multidimensional convergences his practice shares with the illuminating and provocative work of Hito Steyerl, who has been described by ArtReview as ‘the world’s most powerful voice of conscience’. Presented together for the first time, the exhibition will highlight the thematic similarities and contextual differences that resonate across both artists’ oeuvres.
Revered as pioneers in the fields of documentary video and new media art across two generations, the artists’ expansive films interrogate organisational power structures, divisions of labour and the inescapable and shifting roles of the images that permeate contemporary society.
| Duration | 06 February 2020 - 31 August 2020 |
| Times | online |
| Cost | Free |
| Venue | Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac |
| Address | Ely House, 37 Dover Street, London, W1S 4NJ |
| Contact | 4402038138400 / polly.gaer@ropac.net / www.ropac.net |