The Milanese foundation continues its exploratory journey into the points of contact between the visual arts, technology, and society with an exhibition that challenges our very perception of the present.
Hito Steyerl’s practice operates on multiple levels: the artistic, of course, but also the academic – as a lecturer – and the scholarly, focusing on media, technology, and the global circulation of images. In the exhibition on view in Milan at the Osservatorio until October 30th 2026, Fondazione Prada highlights all these facets of Steyerl’s multifaceted work, which finds its fullest expression in video production, blending irony, satire, and contemporary allegory.
THE ISLAND BY HITO STEYERL AND THE MOST URGENT THEMES OF THE CONTEMPORARY
The Island is a complex, multilayered exhibition project that weaves together several urgent themes of our contemporary moment. At the heart of the narrative is a video work created by the artist specifically for the show, located on the first floor. The entire site-specific installation was inspired by an anecdote told to the artist several years ago by literary critic and academic Darko Suvin, author of Metamorphoses of Science Fiction (1979). During the explosion of a bomb in Zagreb in 1941, Suvin reacted to the terrifying event by imagining himself inside the 1938 science-fiction film serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, in which the American comic-strip hero saves Earth from destruction. Science fiction, in fact, is rooted in the exploration of the future, scientific and technological progress, and their implications – including dystopian ones – for humanity, questioning our reality through speculative scenarios. In The Island, Steyerl pursues a similar inquiry, but filters it through her distinctive ironic and provocative lens. This theme is explored in depth in The Birth of Science Fiction, one of the project’s key narrative pillars.
A PROJECT OVERLAPPING SCIENCE AND FICTION TO ENCOURAGE CONTEMPLATION
Structured around four main narrative threads – The Artificial Island, Lucciole, The Birth of Science Fiction, and Flash! – The Island blends elements of science fiction and quantum physics, blurring the boundaries between storytelling and reality, between fiction and science. Past and present also overlap in a form of storytelling that can feel disorienting or confusing to a hurried or inattentive visitor. The space itself – almost completely dark, with only a few LED lights guiding the way – encourages slow movements, measured steps, and moments of contemplation.
The Artificial Island traces the recent discovery, in Dalmatia, of a submerged artificial island dating back to the Neolithic period, lying between four and five meters below the surface of the Adriatic Sea. It stands as an example of the unstoppable ingenuity of humankind, capable of grand undertakings thousands of years ago and continuously shaping and reshaping the world around us. Lucciole reveals how the visual and symbolic presence of bioluminescent plankton acts as an indicator of wave motion. Finally, Flash! evokes the childhood fantasies and insights of Suvin, an avid reader of Flash Gordon comics. Across the video, these narratives surface in alternating and unexpected ways, yet maintain an underlying coherence that keeps the viewer magnetically absorbed.
On the first floor of the Osservatorio, the themes and narratives of the project are presented through a luminous spherical installation that projects a 3D documentary scan of the submerged Neolithic site, alongside an installation of four LED screens featuring documentary videos with interviews with quantum physicist Tommaso Calarco, archaeologist Mate Parica, language historian Sachi Shimomura – daughter of Nobel Prize-winning chemist Osamu Shimomura – and author Darko Suvin.
HITO STEYERL AND THE CRITIQUE OF TECHNOLOGICAL PERVASIVENESS, BETWEEN AI AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Steyerl’s Flash is an atypical hero, unsettling in its kitschy 1980s aesthetic and in its constant insistence on being there to save the world. Holding a smartphone, the character livestreams on social media, and the entire narrative surrounding Flash seems to draw a parallel with the world of influencers, who must continually assert and perform their role in order to define themselves within an increasingly fluid and fragmented world.
Moving restlessly across the island of Korčula, in Croatia, the protagonist encounters a handful of locals and a great many tourists. In recent years, the island has recorded a steady growth in tourist arrivals and overnight stays, with a 10% increase in the town of Korčula alone in June 2025 compared to the previous year. This upward trend, evident across the Mediterranean, is reshaping the cultural and social fabric of many destinations – and may soon affect Korčula as well, especially in light of its recent archaeological discoveries.
At the same time, Steyerl’s video work delivers a sharp critique of the pervasiveness of artificial intelligence: real-life footage alternates with digitally generated sequences. Today, it has become common to encounter videos and images online and wonder, “Are they authentic?”. Our perception of reality is shifting in response to these technological innovations which, while proving useful across many fields, also compel us to doubt and question the digital world that surrounds us.
“THE PAST IS OUR FUTURE”: KLAPA TRADITIONAL CHORAL SINGING OF DALMATIA
At a certain point in the video, amid temporal jumps and overlaps, the voiceover declares, “The past is our future.” Steyerl weaves references to the history and local traditions of the island that serves as the setting for her audiovisual work throughout The Island. Notably, the traditional choral singing (klapa) performed by the local ensemble Klapa Ivo Lozica is reinterpreted in a free-style key, revisiting local melodies and songs. Amid the overall sense of urgency, these moments offer pauses of suspension and breath, often shifting the image away from the mainland and the human world toward the underwater realm, which continues its natural cycles seemingly unaware of what unfolds on the surface, yet nonetheless affected by human behavior – polluting and reckless – that undermines its well-being and stability. In his contribution, Calarco draws a parallel between choral music and quantum physics, where the blending of voices and the presence of multiple elements produce an output far greater than the sum of its individual parts.
Another sound effect, particularly dear to the artist, is the call of a bird species native to Australia that has learned to mimic the sound of Star Wars lightsabers – a striking example of how nature, art, and technology intersect in today’s world. The Island offers a satirical perspective on the world around us, drawing on diverse and seemingly contrasting languages that, in reality, make up our multifaceted reality – a reality in which human activity and ingenuity appear as a dual force, both creative and destructive.
LINK
- NINETY PERCENT OF EVERYTHING: Interview with the curator Maria Pina Usai - October 2, 2026
- Christina Nakou: the fragility of matter as a metaphor for the human condition - July 3, 2026
- The Island: Hito Steyerl at Osservatorio Fondazione Prada in Milan - December 19, 2025
