Games and Politics

Games and Politics is a series of events by the Goethe-Institut Cyprus, which deals with the role and relevance of games and gaming in society.

A game is always more than just a game. Without considering the influence of the society that plays it, it remains just as impossible to understand as without considering its influence on that society. Just among Germans, 42 percent of the population now regularly click their way through digital game worlds, of which 53 percent are men and 47 percent women. Revenues in the computer games sector now far surpass those in the film industry.

The effects of this development are becoming apparent: Like other media, computer games permit themselves to be harnessed by the political interests of any faction. Game designers are turning toward new themes and target audiences. Artists are using the medium in order to open its functions up to scrutiny and to explore where the boundary of games now lie. And the big museums are discovering computer games as cultural property, which is meant to be collected and preserved. Reflections on the phenomenon of computer games from the perspective of cultural sciences, however, continue to be few and far between in the discourse of art institutions.

The Goethe-Institute´s exhibition Games and Politics is intended to close this gap, at least in part. Games and Politics came into being in 2016 and is based on the exhibition Global Games by the ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Medien) in Karlsruhe, Germany. The exhibition curators selected politically ambitious computer games, created between 2004 and 2016, and which explore the limits and possibilities of the genre. Computer games conceive of themselves not merely as a (re-)presentation of social conditions and conflicts, but attempt to simulate the processes and rules that give rise to these conflicts.

The interactive exhibition Games and Politics includes eighteen computer games, of which sixteen can be played. Visitors become players and experience firsthand how the games affect them. The games deal with topics such as media criticism, migration, power relations, gender roles and militarism on an artistic level. They are complemented by three documentaries on the subject.

The exhibition Games and Politics will be inaugurated at the Goethe-Institut´s exhibition hall on Thursday 19th September at 7:30 pm and will continue until 16th October.