Digitization changes the way we work, and it changes us. But when robots and intelligent computer programs do our work for us, will we be free? In the video installation “IDLE” (2019), media artist Stefan Hurtig has a voice-off read the essay “Laziness as the Truth of Mankind” (1921) by Russian Suprematist Kazimir Malevich, while domestic robots work and the main character dances on a futuristic set.

In his video installations and art objects, Hurtig addresses the role of image and identity in immaterial labor. He questions the prominent media status of artists, models, start-ups, management philosophy, and fitness. In aesthetic terms, he always plays with the switch between showing and hiding. In the video sculpture “Challenge (Sorry, no photo)” (2012-14), a red mouth repeats Heidi Klum’s dream-killing mantra from the talent show “Germany’s Next Top Model”: “Unfortunately, I don’t have a photograph for you today.” “Double Make-Up. Or: Faces in the Wild” (2015) is a remake of the video performance “Art Make-Up” (1967/68) by U.S. artist Bruce Nauman, with Hurtig’s face gradually disappearing in illustrations referencing facial recognition technologies.

The individual, incompatible with the market and the workplace, must adapt to the rhythm of labor and machines. In a series of works, Hurtig analyzes various techniques for the self-optimization this requires, from fitness to self-help to meditation. In the setting of a “fun office”, the three-channel video installation “Bloom! Your Self Beautifully Enriched” (2015–17) takes a skeptical look at the rise of the concept of creativity in management, while the video “HYPER” (2015) also quotes advice for creatives during a training session at the gym.

In the technological optimization of humans and the increasing intelligence of machines, where is the threshold beyond which humanity itself is called into question? For his new work “BREEDER” (2022), Hurtig trained a learning algorithm to generate pictures of him in yoga positions: to what extent is an intelligent machine capable of understanding human anatomy, and humans in general? “CBRG.SPACE” (2022) deals with changes to the biosphere caused by humankind and its technologies, using smart chips to transform outfits into bearers of virtual information, in turn creating a mobile communication space that can be used in different ways. The video shows the performer Jan Jedenak in such an outfit against the brutalist architecture of a former animal testing lab in Berlin.

This exhibition offers an overview of the Leipzig artist’s research-based practice since 2010, as well as four newly produced works.