Athens Biennale x Art Explora

Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman & Daniel Keller, The Seasteaders, 2017, 28′′37″

Film in English with Greek subtitles

In this documentary, Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman and Daniel Keller scrutinize the controversial Seasteading movement—an initiative by a group of privileged libertarians to build floating, tax-free cities as laboratories for new forms of governance on the high seas, primarily off the coast of Polynesia. Founded by libertarian activist Patri Friedman with financial backing from Silicon Valley entrepreneur Peter Thiel, the Seasteading Institute frames its project as a solution to government “stagnation” and even to climate change. Yet the film reveals how these ambitions are entangled with libertarian disdain for democracy, techno-utopian visions of transhumanism, and an uncomfortable closeness to alt-right and neoreactionary ideologies. By documenting the Institute’s first conference in Tahiti and engaging with its key figures, Hurwitz-Goodman and Keller expose the underlying political extremities of a movement that imagines the ocean as a new frontier of utopian enclaves for a privileged few.

First screened at the 6th Athens Biennale “ANTI” (2018), the documentary returns to Athens at a time when rising inequality, polarization, populism, and alt-right currents challenge the fragile post–WWII consensus in the West. By resurfacing this narrative, the Athens Biennale invites us to confront the uneasy entanglement of technological utopianism, political extremism, and global crises, while also questioning the emerging forms of colonialism in today’s world.

Discussion to follow the screening

Special screening in collaboration with Athens Biennale / Courtesy of the artists

Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman

Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker. His films, music videos, and documentaries tease out the hidden strands, iconography, and ideologies coursing through tech, economics, politics, emergent AI, and obscure subcultures. His eclectic, intimate work has won an EMMY, an Edes Award for Emerging Artists, and awards at film festivals internationally. Jacob has partnered with the New York Times, DIS.art, Discovery, Atlas Obscura, BBC Reel, WIRED, NBC Left Field, WARP Records, Participant Media, Al Jazeera, ATTN, and others, to produce films that have screened at the Athens Biennale, CPH:DOX, the DeYoung Museum, the Zeppelin Museum, Raindance, ITVFest, and in museums, theaters, and festivals globally. He's the co-creator of the critically acclaimed, immersive documentary webseries Far Off Sounds about obscure, ecstatic musical experiences around the world. He has directed documentary films, music videos, and commercials in Vietnam, Ghana, Tahiti, the United Kingdom, and across the North American continent.

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Daniel Keller

Daniel Keller is an American Berlin-based artist, writer, and filmmaker. His wide-ranging output engages with issues at the intersection of politics, economics, technology, culture and collaboration. He is a contributor to New Models, Texte Zur Kunst, DIS, and Spike Art. His work has been exhibited at The New Museum, NYC; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw; Fridericianum, Kassel; The Athens Biennale; KW, Berlin and The Zabludowicz Collection, London. In 2018, Daniel co-founded the podcast and website New Models with arts journalist Caroline Busta, and film director and audio producer @LILINTERNET.

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The Athens Biennial

Founded in 2005, the Athens Biennale is Greece’s most important periodic festival of contemporary culture and one of the most dynamic art biennials in Europe, recognized for its experimental character and forward-looking curatorial visions. In 2015, it received the European Cultural Foundation’s Princess Margriet Award for Culture as one of Europe’s most significant and innovative cultural initiatives. The Athens Biennale functions as a platform for local artistic production while actively engaging with the international contemporary art scene. Each edition captures the global social and cultural momentum through the lens of the city, reflecting Athens’ rich heritage while addressing the pressing challenges of our time.

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