Expanding on Amazon’s AmaZen ZenBooth (announced earlier this year as part of the company’s WorkingWell health and wellness initiative for US Fulfillment Center workers), I’m happy to share my latest project A Prime Dystopia, on display now at Kreuzberg Pavillon (@kreuzbergpavillon) in Berlin. Co-opting the friendly, approachable tone and visual language of tech industry advertising—flat, clean vector graphics, bold typography, and aspirational imagery—the installation seeks to bring attention to the generic, formulaic marketing communications of aspiring “unicorn” startups. While these companies position themselves as young, idealistic upstarts, they rely on the same traditional hierarchies of global financial power and systematic inequality they often claim to circumvent. Seeking to evoke a sense of uncannyness from passersby, the installation reimagines the Kreuzberg Pavillon project space as a product of the neighborhood’s continuing development and gentrification: in short, displaced. As competing, venture capital-funded delivery startup “dark stores” begin to surface in former storefront spaces across Berlin, it begs the question: how will these structures of international financial power continue to transform our local communities—and to whose benefit? Embedded in the window installation is a QR code paired with a call-to-action to download a hypothetical app. However, the forwarding link suggests another kind of call to action. For the duration of the exhibition, the page will act as an ongoing archive of relevant news articles documenting the exploitative working practices around precarious, low-wage, and gig-economy labor, as well as the current self-organization of workers in Berlin and beyond. The exhibition is on view at Kreuzberg Pavillon until Sunday, October 24th. The exhibition is on view day and night from the sidewalk with barrier-free access. A Prime Dystopia 25.09.-24.10.2021 Kreuzberg Pavillon Naunynstraße 53, 10999 Berlin 🌱 #aprimedystopia #kreuzbergpavillon #erinmitchell #zenbooth #amazoncrime #berlinvsamazon #berlinstartup #workersrights #solidarity #contemporaryart #sitespecific (at Kreuzberg Pavillon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUs00xrIpao/?utm_medium=tumblr