Antje Majewski's AI-Assisted Exhibition Explores Ancestral Migration and Digital Colonialism

Antje Majewski's exhibition 'the man who disappeared (amerika)' at Neugerriemschneider in Berlin from January 27 to February 24 uses AI-generated paintings to examine her family's settler history in the American West. The German artist discovered letters from her great-great-great granduncle Georg Pflugradt, who migrated from Leipzig to California during the 1848-55 gold rush. Majewski's video work 'A Journey in Reverse' (2023) symbolically retraces his westward journey in reverse, documenting contemporary American landscapes from the West Coast eastward. Six AI-assisted oil paintings titled 'Unreliable Images' attempt to reconstruct Pflugradt's 19th-century milieu through algorithmic prompts that reference Mormon settlers and historic Salt Lake City. The exhibition includes documentary materials, maps, books on Western history, and the artist's watercolor sketchbooks. Majewski's use of extractive AI technology parallels her ancestor's participation in the California gold rush, creating what she describes as 'boldly weak' paintings that critique digital colonialism. The show's title references Franz Kafka's 1927 incomplete novel, emphasizing gaps in historical knowledge from family narratives to contemporary data mining practices in California. Pflugradt's letters describe hardships of migration but eventually document his establishment of small businesses on the West Coast.