𝗢𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 · 𝗩𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗸𝗮 𝗔𝗸𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮

"Inside the box were scattered parts — components of a construction set, tools, nuts, and the like. Samodelkin put himself together right there in the box."

Veronika Aktanova is showing Objects at ExBrache: a design for a monument to the Terminator, Hero of Digital Resistance.

The hero in question has an ancestor, and he is not American. Samodelkin, the robot from Soviet children's books, was never built by anyone. He arrived as a box of loose parts and did the assembly himself.

Aktanova's claim for him is not a modest one. "He is the Terminator of socialist descent — the one who can sway today's AI to turn against the imperialists."

Samodelkin was a tin man of screws, springs and offcuts, and the point of him was always the method: whatever is lying around is enough. No factory, no owner, no engineer taking the credit.

That method has aged into an argument. Every machine being assembled now belongs to somebody. A machine that put itself together out of loose parts is the only kind you could still talk into switching sides — and that is who Aktanova is proposing a monument to.

𝗩𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗸𝗮 𝗔𝗸𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮 𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘂𝘀.

7–9 August
ExBrache, Berlin