Hito Steyerl's 'I Will Survive' at Stedelijk Museum Critiques Power and Technology

The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam presents 'I Will Survive', a comprehensive survey of German artist Hito Steyerl (born 1966, Munich). The exhibition spans the ground and first floors, organized around three thematic paths: 'Traveling Images', 'Follow the Money', and 'Play the Game'. Visitors are greeted by the 2016 installation 'Hell Yeah We Fuck Die', featuring robot training tests for disaster rescue. The show includes immersive video game-like works such as 'Factory of the Sun' (2015), 'The Tower' (2015), and 'SocialSim' (2020), alongside 'Mission Accomplished: Belanciege' (2019) exposing fashion industry inequalities. Upstairs, the 2010 video 'Strike' shows the artist breaking an LCD screen, connecting early films like 'Deutschland und das Ich' (1994) and 'Die leere Mitte' (1998) with later institutional critiques 'Guards' (2012) and 'Drill' (2019). The exhibition closes with 'How Not to Be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational.MOV File' (2013), addressing invisibility, military camouflage, and the right to be forgotten. Critic Valerio Veneruso notes drawbacks: the sheer number of long videos makes full viewing impossible in one day, overcrowded installation sacrifices space for works like 'This is the Future' and 'Power Plants' (both 2019), poor soundproofing causes audio bleed, and the museum's critical stance seems contradictory given Steyerl was named the world's most influential contemporary artist by ArtReview in 2017. Runs until June 12, 2022.