Internet Explorer

Through her walk-through installation, Berlin-based (post)digital artist Theresa Reiwer explores the vision of the web as a democratic, solidarity-based common good that is committed to serving people rather than exploiting them.

The internet was once a utopian promise of global connectedness. Collaborative discovery has since given way to an algorithmically choreographed bubble. With the rise of the platform economy, the way we interact online has changed. Since then, we have been shaped by a profit-driven mindset and systemically amplified conflicts, which are currently solidifying into fascist structures and encroaching on physical spaces as well.

Set against the backdrop of an internet café, the guests of “Internet Explorer” navigate essayistic video worlds and mini-games that interweave the digital present with past online moments. Together with a speculative AI serving as both companion and operating system, they explore the question of whether the promise of access and participation has ever been fulfilled, or whether existing power structures have merely been reorganized.

Following “Lasting Generation” (premiering at HAU in 2024), this is the second HAU co-production with Reiwer.