Gala Hernández López (b. 1993 in Murcia, Spain) has an interdisciplinary practice that encompasses film and video works and performances in addition to her academic research. She frequently explores human self-perception in a world shaped by digital technologies. From a critical feminist perspective, she examines the ideas, desires, and visions of the future that emerge in virtual communities and how new, often reactionary technological utopias influence our thoughts and feelings. Her works are based on intensive research and combine factual, socially critical analysis with poetic, personal, and dreamlike elements.
A trilogy of video works is on display at the Berlinische Galerie. The starting point for "The Mechanics of Fluids" (2022 , 38 min.) is a suicide note written by a user on an online forum for incels –a community of heterosexual men whose worldview is characterised by self-pity, misogyny, and violent fantasies. This kind of content dominates large parts of the internet and sometimes leads to real acts of violence. The artist develops an essay about patriarchal structures and loneliness in the age of algorithms that is as precisely analytical as it is astonishingly empathetic.
"for here am I sitting in a tin can far above the world" (2024, 18 min.) addresses the commonalities between crypto culture and Cryonics, the ‘freezing’ of humans after their death so that they can be brought back to life in the future. In both instances, the future itself becomes an economic commodity to be exploited. Collages of YouTube videos, archival material, and 3D animations reveal the connections between financial speculation, science fiction, and the human desire to predict and control the future. The third part, "+10k" (2025 , 30 min.), follows Pol, a young Spanish crypto trader whose goal is to earn 10,000 euros a month: he strives for economic advancement through financial speculation, online coaching, and visualisation exercises. Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s idea of ‘capitalism as religion,’ this work explores the intertwining of money, belief, and self-optimisation in the digital age.
IBB Video Space
Since 2011 the IBB Video Space has been screening artists who work with time-based media. The programme features not only established names in contemporary video art but also up-and-coming artists rarely seen in museums to date. For these, the Berlinische Galerie seeks to facilitate an institutional début. Each screening brings a new encounter with work that raises questions about the medium and about social or political issues. Importance is attached to including marginalised perspectives and to shedding light on the impact of power structures.