Joscha Steffens: Teen Spirit Island

The German photographer Joscha Steffens is intrigued by social subcultures. For his most recent project, Uchronia (2017), he infiltrated an occult neo-nazi group. In 2012 he became fascinated by the world of games, both their virtual and live action versions, and by the themes of power and violence that are glamorized and aestheticized in them. This fascination resulted in the project Teen Spirit Island (2015), whose first-ever exhibition is being held in Huis Marseille. Besides the intense portraits that Steffens made of top professional gamers on stage in the competition arena, Huis Marseille is exhibiting a new installation showing paparazzi-style photographs, titled On Summoner’s Rift, in which Steffens has unobtrusively captured these icons during their day-to-day routines on these tours. In his video installation Dream / Hack Steffens zooms in on the speed of the players’ mouse-hand movements, the key to their success, which is necessarily – since this dexterity is age-related – a passing prowess.