ART-PRESENTATION: First Person Plural Empathy,Intimacy,Irony and Anger

On 2017 started BAK’s (basis voor actuele kunst) long-term research itinerary “Propositions for Non-Fascist Living” (2017–2020) , prompted by the dramatic resurfacing and normalization of historical and contemporary fascisms in our present. Through impromptu artworks, lectures, readings, discussions, screenings, performances, and explorations of the assembly (of being together) as an art form, it opens up a space for politico-aesthetic experiments practicing art as imagination, thought, and action intervening in the contemporary.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: BAK Archive

The group exhibition “First Person Plural: Empathy, Intimacy, Irony, and Anger”, inquires into the emotional infrastructures of the present. What roles do emotions and affects play in forming collectivities and political belonging? What kinds of “we’s” do empathy, intimacy, irony, and anger assemble, and how do they determine which “first person plurals” someone is part of? And where does the affective power of art stand in these processes? The exhibition considers these questions along contemporary political, economic, technological, and social challenges, including the alarming surfacing of fascisms in public life. Pondering the emotional as an organizing force across political spectrums, emotions are understood not as individual mental states but as collective material and affective practices that are both shaped by and shape social life. The works in the exhibition challenge the familiar, divisive narratives of a “we,” such as the nation and the so-called “refugee crisis,” and allude to emotions as entry points for manipulation. Among the works on presentation are: Doug Ashford’s new video animation “Bunker 2” (2017) that intersperses news clippings dated from 1982 to 2016 with bands of changing colur. The barrage of images and the black metal that accompanies them, presents an overwhelming concurrence of fact and feeling. As images blend into one another, and the aesthetic connection to colour allows intuition to take over, the work suggest the possibility that our emotions can resist the culture of publicity and reshape notions of progress. Sarah Vanhee’s “The Making of Justice” (2017), is a movie about seven prisoners working on the scenario for a crime film together with Sarah Vanhee. Like the main character in the film they are making up, they are all guilty of murder. To shape the story, they draw on their own experiences, ideas and desires. The viewers, can only guess whether they are using fiction as a means of confirming, transcending or transforming their present situation. In the course of the film they discuss criminality as a parallel reality, what the nature of justice is, and what a society would be like if it was oriented towards healing rather than retribution. “The justice system is not synonymous with justice itself. The justice system means the application of rules, but justice is a human capacity”, says one of the men. The image of ‘the criminal’ is always elusive, both in terms of form (because the lens always remains out of focus) and content, because the authors and their character appear first as people and only then as offenders. Performative conferences: The exhibition provides a framework for two performative conferences within BAK’s long-term series “Propositions for Non-Fascist Living”. In Brussels on 19/5/18 as part of Kunstenfestivaldesarts “Propositions #5: First Person Plural” is dedicated to the many legacies of 1968 as they continue 50 years later. On 30/6/18 at BAK “Propositions #6: The Temporary Institute for the Contemporary”, enacts a temporary “institute of the contemporary” as the culmination of the first year of BAK’s Fellowship Program. Also a library space is conceived by Sepake Angiama. Titled “We Summon Here All Beings Present, Past, and Future” that features a series of public workshops. The exhibition features works by: Doug Ashford, Sven Augustijnen, Tala Madani, Liz Magic Laser, Eva and Franco Mattes, Otobong Nkanga, and Sarah Vanhee.

Info: Curator: Matteo Lucchetti, BAK – basis voor actuele kunst, Pauwstraat 13a, Utrecht, Duration: 12/5-22/7/18, Days & Hours: Wed-Sun 13:00-19:00, www.bakonline.org