Hito Steyerl's 'Mechanical Kurds' Debuts in Italy at MACRO

The 2026 season at MACRO in Rome kicks off with Hito Steyerl's exhibition 'Mechanical Kurds,' curated by Alice Labor. This work, which was commissioned in 2025 by the New Museum in New York and Jeu de Paume in Paris, makes its Italian debut. It features a single-channel video alongside immersive spatial components, delving into themes of digital labor, artificial intelligence, geopolitical strife, and the creation of images. The video uncovers the unseen bodies and territories involved in AI development, revealing the political violence embedded in algorithms. It contrasts documentary footage from the Domiz refugee camp in Iraqi Kurdistan with fictional aspects, emphasizing the vulnerability of digital economies reliant on extractive monopolies of human and energy resources.