Archives of violence
22 - 30.11.2016
CRIC- Festival for critical culture, Chifte Hammam, National Gallery of Macedonia- Skopje
Curator: Elena Veljanovska
Artists: Michelle Teran, Gjorgje Jovanovic, Memory of the world (Marcell Mars & Tomislav Medak), Zeyno Pekünlü, Hristina Ivanoska, Sonya Schönberger
Website: www.kontrapunkt-mk.org
The power of the archive is the document, the potential future fact. Archives guard our knowledge, help re-evaluate the past and, by documenting the present, create a memory resource for the future. In this way, archives stand against historical amnesia and revisionism. In today’s imbalanced world, the role of the archive thus is of utmost importance, as the crisis of democracy is more apparent than ever: Progressive, humanist ideas of society are threatened by oblivious new narratives, built on populist and neoliberal ideas. Their effects are visible in a wide range of social and political crises, be it human rights violation, gender inequality, and environmental destruction or impediments to the right to housing, education, free speech or freedom of movement. Again in history, we are witnessing the polarization of power, hate speech and a growing social segregation in the “developed” as well as the “undeveloped” part of the world.
This exhibition demonstrates the power of the archive to speak up against this violence. It will try to give shape, to make visible several research artistic projects, which work with concrete cases of violence. In this way, the material facts / works on display in the exhibition will serve as documents-witnesses of this violence. The audience will be able to go through visual and sound archives researching different topics, varying from the housing crisis in Spain (Michelle Teran), corruption and repression (Gjorgje Jovanovic), the disappearance of knowledge (Memory of the world), gender stereotyping, objectification and media violence (Zeyno Pekünlü), the lack of complete feminine archives (Hristina Ivanoska) or direct violence performed on key political figures (Sonya Schönberger). Thе aim is to enrich our senses for distinguishing and registering the violence that surrounds us on a daily basis, the one that we have accustomed to, the structural violence embedded in the political system. By doing so, the visual document, will try to visualize the dissonance between those who govern and those that are governed, and make tangible the non-visible, not easily distinguishable forms of violence. The collected dense archival material will be interpreted through various formats adjacent to the exhibition. Thus, some of the artworks will be accompanied by additional performative or education part, thus moving from the unidirectional representation towards a rather discursive and participatory atmosphere and becoming part of the Forum for critical culture as part of the CRIC festival.
Artists: Michelle Teran, Gjorgje Jovanovic, Memory of the world (Marcell Mars & Tomislav Medak), Zeyno Pekünlü, Hristina Ivanoska, Sonya Schönberger
Website: www.kontrapunkt-mk.org
The power of the archive is the document, the potential future fact. Archives guard our knowledge, help re-evaluate the past and, by documenting the present, create a memory resource for the future. In this way, archives stand against historical amnesia and revisionism. In today’s imbalanced world, the role of the archive thus is of utmost importance, as the crisis of democracy is more apparent than ever: Progressive, humanist ideas of society are threatened by oblivious new narratives, built on populist and neoliberal ideas. Their effects are visible in a wide range of social and political crises, be it human rights violation, gender inequality, and environmental destruction or impediments to the right to housing, education, free speech or freedom of movement. Again in history, we are witnessing the polarization of power, hate speech and a growing social segregation in the “developed” as well as the “undeveloped” part of the world.
This exhibition demonstrates the power of the archive to speak up against this violence. It will try to give shape, to make visible several research artistic projects, which work with concrete cases of violence. In this way, the material facts / works on display in the exhibition will serve as documents-witnesses of this violence. The audience will be able to go through visual and sound archives researching different topics, varying from the housing crisis in Spain (Michelle Teran), corruption and repression (Gjorgje Jovanovic), the disappearance of knowledge (Memory of the world), gender stereotyping, objectification and media violence (Zeyno Pekünlü), the lack of complete feminine archives (Hristina Ivanoska) or direct violence performed on key political figures (Sonya Schönberger). Thе aim is to enrich our senses for distinguishing and registering the violence that surrounds us on a daily basis, the one that we have accustomed to, the structural violence embedded in the political system. By doing so, the visual document, will try to visualize the dissonance between those who govern and those that are governed, and make tangible the non-visible, not easily distinguishable forms of violence. The collected dense archival material will be interpreted through various formats adjacent to the exhibition. Thus, some of the artworks will be accompanied by additional performative or education part, thus moving from the unidirectional representation towards a rather discursive and participatory atmosphere and becoming part of the Forum for critical culture as part of the CRIC festival.