Opening February 2014
In the Aftermath of Trauma presents the work of contemporary video artists from around the world who employ their medium to probe the experience and aftermath of traumatic occurrences. Engaging with such historical events as the Holocaust, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the war in Vietnam, the reunification of Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the conflicts between India and Pakistan, these artists use the semi-documentary format to delve into the very nature of trauma. Offering ways of comprehension that go beyond the dichotomy of head-on confrontation versus denial or repression, the five video installations in the exhibition suggest a more nuanced and complex relationship between the original event and its present ramifications. They confound the relation between fact and artifice, truth and art, through a variety of formal methods, both inquiring into the nature of the traumatic event and seeking distance from it, questioning the future possibility of closure in either the real world or the imaginary realm.
Artists with work in the exhibition are Yael Bartana, Phil Collins, Alfredo Jaar, Amar Kanvar, and Vandy Rattana.
Image credit
Yael Bartana, still from Mary Koszmary (Nightmares), 2007. Courtesy of Petzel Gallery, New York; Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam; and Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw.