No other artist analyzes our present with such sharp and at the same time playfully humorous insight: Hito Steyerl's influential films and installations are shown in major museums in Los Angeles, London, and Paris, at the Venice Biennale, and at documenta. On the occasion of the major retrospective of her work organized by Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hito Steyerl speaks with art critic and author Tobias Timm about her aesthetics and artistic production in the age of AI, about old antisemitism and modern tech-fascism, about the art world and politics. And in doing so, she points the way toward rediscovered utopias and new forms of solidarity in action.

Hito Steyerl (born 1966 in Munich) is a filmmaker, media artist, and author. She is one of the most internationally influential figures in contemporary art. In her films and installations, she examines the interconnections of art, technology, politics, and economics. Her works have been exhibited worldwide in renowned museums, most recently at MACRO Rome, MAK Vienna, Fondazione Prada Milan, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Centre Pompidou Paris. Steyerl was awarded the S+T+ARTS Prize in 2026, received the Erich Fromm Prize in 2025, and was honored with the Käthe Kollwitz Prize of the Academy of Arts, Berlin, in 2019. She is Professor of Emergent Digital Media at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich.

Tobias Timm, born in Munich in 1975, is an editor in the arts and culture section of ZEIT. Since 2006, he has been writing there about art and architecture, cultural policy, and crime. He previously studied urban ethnology, history, and cultural studies in Berlin and New York. Together with Stefan Koldehoff, he published the books Falsche Bilder, echtes Geld and Kunst und Verbrechen. He lives in Berlin.