Whether real or virtually generated, images act on the senses and thoughts of those who look at them, conditioning their feelings and actions. This is what is attested in Tent/Texture III, Kharkiv by Hito Steyerl (Munich, Germany, 1966). Here we can observe a landscape made of different overlapped images of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, scarred by the tensions between the nationalists and the pro-Russian separatists. The artwork was created with a simple mobile app and presents itself as a collage of 3D scans where trenches, flags, and urban views can equally be spotted. Distorted fragments leave the burden of the scenario’s recomposition to the viewer, although it will never fully represent reality.
Hito Steyerl