Anna Ehrenstein

Image credit: © Anna Ehrenstein

Who keeps AI running – and what impact does this labor have on those who perform it? In The Language of the Soil, on view from 13 March to 12 June 2026, Anna Ehrenstein takes up this very question.

The project was developed in close collaboration with researcher Ariana Dongus as well as activists and worker-researchers Richard Mathenge, Mophat Okinyi, and Fasica Berhane – all of whom have worked as digital platform laborers themselves and connected Ehrenstein with further workers and stakeholders on the ground. At its core are the individuals in Nairobi who train large language models, and copywriters in Cairo producing content for OnlyFans.

In Ehrenstein’s practice, soil represents both origin and trace – the often invisible residues of labor. It embodies the material foundations upon which digital economies are built, while also pointing to the persistence of historical hierarchies and exploitative structures that continue to shape today’s global labor and data economies. The ground becomes a symbol of the entanglement of human, nature, and technology – a starting point for artistic reflection and collective fiction.