On Power and Resistance

© Hito Steyer

“Fabrik”, in German, means “factory”, a concept crucial to the exhibition, if not always in the obvious sense. One could say that the exhibition turns the space it inhabits into a “factory” of ideas, but individual works in the show relate to the notion in their own ways. In the works by video artist Hito Steyerl and filmmakers Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk, the connection is more direct. The former’s Factory of the Sun takes the form of a video game that centres on the notion of sunlight, an ancient symbol of power and progress, to talk about power and resistance in the digital world. The game, significantly, is not “played” by anyone and is instead believed to be “playing” us. In it, workers are forced to dance in a motion capture studio (the “factory” of the title) so that their movements can be turned into artificial sunlight.

In Metwaly and Rizk’s film Out on the Streets, the factory is more of a real world setting. The duo invited groups of workers in Cairo, employed and unemployed, to act out the privatisation of a factory, and use it to narrate their own experiences with the “powerful”, from bosses and policemen to the State.

Florian Ebner, chief of photography at Centre Pompidou in Paris and curator of “Fabrik”, says a big reason it was thought necessary to show “Fabrik” around the world was the central idea of circulation — of data, people and goods. In an email interview, he said, “Today, data is travelling nearly without borders. A big number of western companies fabricate their products in the southern countries, and in many countries of Asia. Their goods are travelling on big ships to the north, the money flows into the same direction.” Ebner adds that what would be of interest to Indians are the questions raised about the participatory nature of the digital world. “The internet promised us more participation, but this is an illusion,” he says.

The history of the factory and its place in the world — as a site of organised labour and ground zero for many workers’ resistance movements — is integral to understanding the show. Modern factories made manufactured goods the centre of the economy, while the human labour behind them was rendered invisible and, eventually, irrelevant. This echoes through the exhibition.

In The Citizen by Tobias Zielony, for instance, the photographer explores the stories of refugees in Europe — their demand to be taken seriously as political subjects and, crucially, as workers who contribute significantly to the economies of their host nations.

Nicolai’s work, perhaps, is the one with the most oblique connection to the idea of the factory, and relates to it mostly via the common themes of resistance. His mural addresses historical and contemporary iconography of the rooftop as a dialectical space for ideas about rebellion and freedom. Also on view are two videos, made by Nicolai on the pavilion roof during the Biennale by shooting with cameras attached to boomerangs, which reflect the key theme of circulation of data, people and ideas.

“Fabrik” is on view at Gallery MMB, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai, till August 26