Anna Ehrenstein und Yara Mekawei, 'The Cloud Is Still Balkanized'

The Cloud Is Still Balkanized is a hybrid lecture-performance by multimedia artist Anna Ehrenstein (* 1993) and sound artist Yara Mekawei (* 1987, Cairo) that combines video, sound and hypnotic techniques. Building on Ehrenstein's earlier work The Balkanization of the Cloud (2022), the performance examines how nation-state logics persist even within seemingly borderless digital infrastructures.

In this newly conceived version, the piece returns under conditions in which digital platforms, propaganda and real-time warfare are increasingly intertwined - characterized by the online circulation of massive violence and complete internet blackouts. Against a hypnotic backdrop, the audience becomes both users and the network itself. Attention, beliefs and affects prove to be changeable and reconfigurable.