WE WERE THERE at DUO SOLOS II, Halle C01 Tapetenwerk Leipzig © Leandro Rodriguez
The work We Were There consists of 22 pictures that the artist collected during her five-month scholarship in Rome. The photos were taken at such close range that the place of origin could only be verified by directly comparing the photograph with its location. The artist replaced a third of these photographs with text-based, AI-generated images.
Each photo is overlaid with transparent paper with a Google review of the location. Due to flaws in the algorithm, the reviews lose their original meaning in translation and turn into poetic texts whose actual intention is open to interpretation.
Alongside our analogue reality, a digital one is constantly growing, which we encounter with the same criteria. We trust friends and strangers equally and expect to find truth in both realities. The algorithm averages the sheer mass of opinions, messages and information and may even come close to being true. However, it is in the details that the actual discrepancy between the two realities becomes apparent.
Instead of gathering our own experiences, we trust the stranger in fear of making a mistake. This is because, unlike us, the stranger was already there and thus we were there.
