Steffen Köhn: Always Here

On view 1–30 September 2020

On various websites, actors perform sexual acts for money. Many of these „models“ are from Eastern Europe, and work in shifts of eight to ten hours; a substantial portion of their lives is therefore spent in front of the cameras that stream their every action and word onto the internet. While waiting for clients, their time is spent making small talk, dozing, surfing the net or discussing dinner plans. The ordinariness of daily life runs in stark contrast to the enormity of their work. As with all companies of platform capitalism, the intermediaries are co-profiteers of all income generated through their website. (Tilman Baumgärtel)

Steffen Köhn studied Social Anthropology and Film Studies at Freie Universität Berlin (Master in Social and Cultural Anthropology 2007), received his PhD in Anthropology from Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz (2014) and studied Film Directing at Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie in Berlin (diploma 2017). His areas of interest are theory and practice of anthropological filmmaking, the anthropology of media, third cinema and the correlations between religion and media.