In a video trilogy, Su Yu Hsin explores landscapes and how they are transformed through industrial production. In the third part created for the exhibition Robotron. Code and Utopia, the artist explores the history of the region where Silicon Saxony is being developed today. It takes us to Gittersee. Here, close to the river Elbe, there were plans at the end of the 1980s to convert a uranium mining operation run by Wismut AG into a high-purity silicon plant, as part of the GDR’s microelectronics programme. The project was abandoned following protests by environmental activists.
On the occasion of the film premiere, Franciska Zólyom, director of the GfZK and co-curator of the exhibition, speaks with the artist and media scholar Vera Tollmann.
Su Yu Hsin is an artist and filmmaker. In her research-oriented practice, she explores the relationship between ecology and technology. Her analytical and poetic narratives focus on the critical infrastructures where humans and non-humans come together. Her video installations have been exhibited worldwide in museums and at international art biennials, including the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, the Centre Pompidou-Metz, the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan and the Taipei Biennial.
Vera Tollmann researches and teaches at the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana University. The center focuses on digital media technologies and infrastructures in the context of societal challenges such as climate change, global conflicts, digital divides, and social injustices.