Reverse Exodus Engineering (2024) examines the forced relocation of communities in the area designated for Saudi Arabia’s controversial „the line“ project, highlighting the involvement of major entertainment and tech companies in this process. While Saudi officials and construction firms promote the project as a „civilizational revolution“ and a groundbreaking approach to urban living, the reality remains highly contentious.
Beyond sustainability concerns, recent reports have revealed the use of violence in resettling local populations. Satellite imagery starkly captures the impact of these displacements, showing dramatic alterations to the landscape, including the demolition of existing structures. By transforming this data into physical sculptures, the work gives tangible form to these shifts in land and livelihood.
Tech companies play a pivotal role in the displacement, offering significant financial backing that facilitates the construction of „the line“. Their investment supports not only the project’s infrastructure and technology but also, indirectly, the relocation of local communities. Documents from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show that the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), which finances all NEOM projects, holds shares in global companies such as Adobe, NVIDIA, and META, linking these corporations to the forced resettlement.
By juxtaposing descriptions of these companies that glorify and portray them in the most favorable light, the work creates a stark contrast between the cruelty of displacement and the „fun“ image often associated with tech and entertainment giants, intensifying the critique of their involvement.
Note: This text was written in 2024 and reflects the information available at the time regarding the NEOM project “The Line.” More recent reports suggest that the construction project has since been partially suspended or substantially reduced in scale.
⋆˚꩜｡⋆˚. ݁٠ ࣪⭑Lena Kalleitner ⋆˚꩜｡⋆˚. ݁٠
Lena Kalleitner (she/her) is a Vienna-based media artist working with video, animation, metal and 3D printing. She studied Media Technology at the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten and Digital Arts at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Her practice focuses on multimedia installations that combine digital and physical production methods and often incorporate coding, web scraping and OSINT. Her work engages with political and socio-economic questions and explores power structures, technological ideologies and the search for agency in an increasingly technologized world.
Come see "The Seven Seals of the Algorithm at House" (2026) before New Heretics closes! only 5 days left ࿐ྀུ 𖠑
⋆˚꩜｡⋆˚. ݁٠ ࣪⭑JOIN US࣪⋆˚꩜｡⋆˚. ݁٠
On the occasion of René Benko‘s arrest last week I would like to share my project “motherlode“ that I worked on in 2023 with you.
Project description from 2023:
Motherlode alludes to a well-known method of amassing wealth in the video game “The Sims”, where players can effortlessly acquire limitless funds by entering the cheat code „motherlode.“ This term has also evolved colloquially to refer to the real or imaginary origin of something valuable or available in large quantities. The artwork critically examines the ease with which affluent entrepreneurs secure monetary resources, often through ambiguous trading practices.
While countless former employees of the Galeria department store chain were left to navigate their fates, Rene Benko’s superyacht, “Roma”, continues to cruise the Adriatic Sea.
Purchase price: 45 million dollars
Annual operating costs: 5 million dollars
In “motherlode“ the viewer traces the course of Benko’s yacht from June to September 2022. The narrative includes detailed coordinates and calculates fuel consumption, revealing the staggering financial implications of such opulence.
“motherlode“ was shown at schauraum museumsquartier as part of the “speedshow series“ curated by Luzius Bernhard (UBERMORGEN).
