Hito Steyerl – ’Being Invisible Can Be Deadly’ | TateShots

The German artist Hito Steyerl addresses the way digital images are created, shared and archived. Her film ’How Not to Be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File’ (2013) takes the form of an instructional video which flips playfully between ’real world’ footage and digital recreations. Inspired by Monty Python, the work balances critique and humour, showing how ’not being seen’ has both oppressive and liberating possibilities. Steyerl works across video and installation as well as delivering performative lectures. She appears in this work as a performer, making herself visible to us, in contrast to the conventional invisibility of the artist, seen only through their work. Hito Steyerl’s How Not to Be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File (2013) is currently on display at Tate Modern: Subscribe for weekly films: