What can images do today? This question is the focus of Florian Ebner's exhibition ‘Fabrik - On the Circulation of Data, Goods and People’. The motif of circulating images, people, goods and money runs like a common thread through the works shown by Olaf Nicolai, Hito Steyerl, Tobias Zielony and Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk. The photographic and video works and digital installations are about the refugees and losers of the neoliberal system, a combative computer game developer, real and imaginary workers of liquidated or virtual factories, and people living on roofs looking for freedom. They are all protagonists of co-existence in the 21st century. In their works, the artists address the question of the scope of freedom that each of us has in a world in which the internet is a seemingly ideal form of participation. Forms of protest and reporting play in this a central role.
The exhibition ‘Fabrik - On the Circulation of Data, Goods and People’ arose out of Germany's contribution to the 56th International Art Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia. Displaying the exhibition in various locations around the world is intended to make it accessible to those who lacked the means to travel to Venice in 2015.
Florian Ebner has been head of the Photography Department of the Centre Pompidou in Paris since 2017. Previously, the art historian was head of the Photographic Collection at the Museum Folkwang in Essen. In 2015, Ebner was curator of the German Pavilion at the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
With its diverse exhibition and event programmes on contemporary art, the ifa links the German art scene with internationally active cultural creators and forms cooperations and networks. The projects, which are often developed in co-creation, generate local meeting platforms, allow international perspectives on topics of global relevance and provide well-stocked repositories of information. The ifa also provides loan exhibits to interested museums.
