Adorno's Grey

This is not because of a flaw in the film’s matter-of-fact detective plot, which, as a simple point of departure features a team of conservators chipping away at a white wall in the Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt. Their goal: to try to uncover a layer of hidden grey paint, which, according to legend, Adorno had requested so that its neutral hue would keep his students bright and alert while he lectured in this same room. Meeting this possible myth, and its promise of attention and reward, pari passu, Steyerl had the gallery space coated all grey, from the ceiling to the carpet lining the floor.

Adam Kleinman, e-flux Criticism, 2012-11-21 · read the full text

Adorno's Grey is not so much an inquiry into the hypothetical colour of the walls of the revered philosopher's classroom that was rumoured to promote concentration, rather, it points to a monochromatic sequence of abstract fluctuations in a post-post modernity (or metamodernity) obsessed with its genesis yet seeking its own path and emancipation. The monochrome here is a buzzing surface, an image constituted of bits of data that Steyerl manipulates and places under observation. At the very end of the exhibition, sitting in a grey room staring at grey panels, Steyerl leaves us perplexed and wondering where we can find our subjective selves within her distortion of the 'objective' flow of historical narrative.

Didier Morelli, Decoy Magazine, 6 January 2014 · read the full text