2026, Commissioned by MaltaBiennale26. 400 x 450 cm
Ta Kola Windmill, Gozo
Encryption #3 is part of an ongoing series of large scale drawings in which Bettina Hutschek transforms political speeches into encrypted visual compositions. Encryption #3 is the visualization of a speech delivered by UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous on the International Day 2025 for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Hutschek brings Bahous’s remarks on violence against women in the digital space into the public space of Gozo. By deliberately withholding legibility, Hutschek mirrors the mechanisms that frequently obscure violence against women within public discourse. The encrypted text becomes a metaphor for concealed harm and for speech that exists but cannot be fully accessed. At the same time, the piece visualizes the ethical and moral aspiration embedded in Bahous’s UN-address: the vision of a world in which gender-based violence has no place. In her speech, Bahous identifies digital violence as a serious form of real-world harm, calling for accountability from justice systems and technology companies as well as sustained investment for prevention.
Working with text, drawing, video, installation and performance, Hutschek’s broader practice interrogates how narratives are constructed and presented. Her research looks at ideologies and belief systems by exploring the ways in which knowledge and “truths” are being constructed and transmitted. In Encryption #3, Hutschek translates Bahous’s plea into a large-scale drawing composed of symbols derived from consecutive interpreting and an autonomous visual lexicon. Her hand-drawn signs are not attached to any specific spoken language, but instead are ideograms, secret units of meaning. The message is present, yet not decipherable.
- Commissioned by MaltaBiennale26
- Curated by Rosa Martinez, Alexia Medici and Antoine Borg Micallef
- Structure Design by Jon Banthorpe and John Bajada
