»Abandon all hope ye who enter here« – the inferno of technological progress

The transmediale 2021-22 in Berlin has been in full swing for a year now. This year's and last year's title is for refusal. Fittingly, it deals with strategies of refusal, and especially with how it can function specifically as a political act. It is the first edition of transmediale, which was created under the auspices of Nora O Murchú. The idea turns out to be a reaction to the effects of the Corona pandemic and what it means for the cultural sector.

At the end of the year-long art festival that the latest transmediale has expanded into, the Berlin Akademie der Künste will now host the exhibition »Abandon all hope ye who enter here« between 26 January and 18 February 2022. The title is also a quotation from Dante's Inferno (Divine Comedy) from the 14th century, which is synonymous with the inferno of digital technologies. In it, the nine artists represented at the exhibition examine the damage and cuts, the false promises and constructed realities left behind by technological innovations. Referring back to the transmediale leitmotif for refusal, they also take up the material, ecological and ideological limits of strategies of refusal. The exhibits question the nature of image production, consumption and technological infrastructures. They are by Annex, Ibiye Camp, Cihad Caner, Tianzhuo Chen, Stine Deja, Constant Dullaart, Lo-Def Film Factory, Alaa Mansour and The Underground Division, among others.

The transmediale is one of the most important festivals for media art and digital culture worldwide and is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Since 1987, the festival has brought together international artists, academics and activists, and thus annually sums up current perspectives on the digital age.