ArtReview releases 2017's Power 100, ranking influential members of the art world

German artist Hito Steyerl is number one in the 2017 edition of the ArtReview Power 100. The annual list, published in association with Bayerische Motoren Werke, ranks the art world’s most influential characters. “Art is powerful. Or at least it’s the construct of powerful forces, not always of the positive kind. This is something Steyerl recognises. The artist makes the top slot on this list because she actively attempts to disrupt this nexus of power,” explains ArtReview.

In topping the list, Hito becomes only the third artist and fourth woman to do so. Having trained in Japan, she got her PhD in philosophy in Vienna and is a professor of new media art in Berlin. This eclectic artistic background is reflected in her work which spans film, installation and writing and takes cue from historical and political narratives, tackling digital culture, philosophy and identity.

One of Hito’s best known pieces How Not to Be Seen, offers instructions on how to disappear by going off-screen and offline, by hiding in plain sight, all narrated by a robotic voice who announces what he goes on to call A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File. More recently, Hito took part in this year’s once-a-decade, era-defining Skulptur Projecke Münster and released Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War that explores the role of art in the era of digital globalisation, while also exhibiting in solo and group shows internationally.

A “considered analysis of power in the contemporary art world,” the Power 100 is compiled each year by an invited panel of writers, artists, curators and critics. An individual or group’s ranking is based on their international influence over the production and distribution of art over the past 12 months. Aptly, this year’s list features a host of artists who are engaged in exploring radical political ideas – photographer Wolfgang Tillmans who spearheaded campaigns to remain in the EU and against the German rightwing AfD party, comes in at number 11.

The top ten in order is as follows:
Hito Steyerl
Pierre Huyghe
Donna Harraway
Adam Szymczyk
David Zwirner
Hans Ulrich Obrist
Iwan & Manuela Wirth
Thelma Golden
Bruno Latour
Gavin Brown

The full list is published in the latest issue of ArtReview, out today (3 November).