Invisible Violence

Invisible Violence is a multi-disciplinary project. The original geo-political context of this project was a European triangle formed out of the Basque region, Ireland (especially Northern Ireland), and Serbia, all which bear the stereotypical image of being notorious for violence and terror. This common denominator and constellation was a backdrop to the project, which has now expanded to include Austrian and broader European contexts.

Therefore the project is hosted by Artium, Basque Museum-Centre of Contemporary Art, Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Belgrade (Serbia) and the Salzburger Kunstverein (Austria).

This exhibition explores so-called invisible violence as it is globally discernable within quotidian, domestic, work-related, and everyday life. This includes administrative and bureaucratic violence; forms of visual violence in media; as well as subtle forms of sectarianism and community animosity from recent historical and current socio-political circumstances. These comparisons of violence are being explored by bringing together artists’ work that problematize territorial, nationalistic, mythological and identity-related topics. Overall the project strives to not be bogged down by partitioned or oppositional representations.
The thematic focus of the project considers some important and sensitive areas in the production of new European identities. By fostering the public debate on issues of invisible violence that are occurring in every corner of Europe, this project emphasizes the need for the production of a common public sphere, and to revisit essential ideas of European identity and citizenship, and thus to put a spotlight on the European Union from within.

The theme of violence as a subject for an exhibition is naturally a sensitive and perhaps provocative one, and sometimes generative of Manichean definitions of “us and them.” It is thus an aim for the curators to resist undue focus on issues of war, genocide and extreme violence, while enabling these to be a tangible, if unseen, backdrop to the project.