MUSINGS: VISITOR AS INVESTIGATOR IN THE CITY OF BROKEN WINDOWS

Beyond Tradition | Erika Serodio

A spine tingling array of sounds greet you as you enter The City of Broken Windows installation at the AGO. It’s hard to decipher whether the noise is coming from the sweet blowing noise of wind chimes or something fragile breaking into a million pieces. This general feeling of duality stayed with me while I tried to understand the different parts of this work.

The City of Broken Windows. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio.

Two competing storylines are written on the walls of the large room, one above the other in a single line each. This forces the visitor, if they are intent on reading both storylines, to make two 360 degree rotations of the room. I was so intent on reading that I nearly bumped into another visitor who was doing the same. An uneasy dance ensued as we all looked over our shoulders before turning slightly here and moving there to get closer to the words we needed next. The required focus on the words is heightened by the two short films playing on opposite sides of the room. The physical screens obscure the words on the wall, forcing you to move around them to read everything, but also forcing you to tune out their competing audio. And yet the room seemed to shift quietly.

"An uneasy dance ensued as we all looked over our shoulders before turning slightly here and moving there to get closer to the words we needed next."

A secret ritual to paint. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio

The City of Broken Windows is part of a current AGO exhibition of work by Hito Steyerl. Adelina Vlas, the AGO’s Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, says that “visitors can expect to be led on a series of often-hallucinatory, always illuminating, investigative journeys into the truth about technology and our everyday lives.”

An investigative journey flawlessly describes my experience with this installation. I walked into the room, and immediately chose where to start – with the words on the wall. But I noticed others around me walked first towards the film screens. Each short film is reflective of one of the storylines. I felt impelled to put the pieces together. There is an underlying story beneath; footnotes are at work throughout the installation both adding and distorting information. I took snapshots of the references to Frédéric Bastiat’s economic theory – something to look up later at home. This installation provided a topic I had never truly considered and when I left my mind was engulfed by that topic.

Footnoted. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio

The City of Broken Windows made me feel like I was an active part of it. I could see the layers beneath the ideas and read deeper into them as needed. Even though the subject was a little confusing and complex, I felt empowered to figure it all out. Placing the visitor as an investigator can provide unexpected moments of surprise and delight. In so many of our classes in the Museum Studies program we touch on the importance of making visitors active participants in meaning-making. In The City of Broken Windows, Hito Steyerl has positioned the visitor to do just that.

This city is cutting edge. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio.

Hito Steyerl: This is the future runs from October 24, 2019 to February 23, 2020, free with the price of admission (completely free if you bring your OMA card).