Like texts, images can deceive – that’s nothing new. With each new technological advance, the degree to which they can be manipulated has been increasing steadily. Straightforward visual communication can no longer be trusted today; think of the fake video interview with Franziska Giffey from June 2022, for instance, in which the satirist duo Vovan and Lexus impersonated Vitali Klitschko.

Tied to their fluid materiality, images can be intercepted, copied and modified at lightning speed at any time. Even an image’s ‘original’ digital code is no longer a fixed entity. Much like a musical score, it becomes reinterpreted again and again by various technical devices and is temporarily allowed to perform on their screen surfaces. 

What does this fragile physicality of the image mean for its thematic content and legibility? In this exhibition conceived by Sylvia Henrich, visual materials in a wide variety of formats and production methods enter into dialogue – subjectivity meets auto-correct. Through a ‘subversive approach to technical processes’ (S. Weier), the artist brings about collisions to reveal the underlying structures and to open up new spaces for the imagination.