The exhibition features works by 15 artists: Francesco Arena, Terry Atkinson, Massimo Bartolini, Eteri Chkadua, Maxim Dondyuk, Harun Farocki, Leon Golub, Alfredo Jaar, Mario Merz, Richard Mosse, Pedro Reyes, Martha Rosler, Sim Chi Yin, and Ran Slavin. War is over! Peace has not yet begun, through the selection of artists’ works, invites us to look at the apparently concluded conflicts of our time and of the past, and to reflect on the profound difference between the mere closing or deadlock of the armed phase of a conflict and the establishment of a true condition of peace, following a reflection on the power and meaning of images in the history of art and communication.
When a war ends, a long period of time begins which is usually far from media attention and which does not always result in real and lasting peace. In recent times we have seen this happen, for example, in Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where tensions are now being rekindled after decades. From the moment the United States decided to “end the war,” has the violence in Afghanistan ceased? On our doorstep, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is even more indicative: the impossibility of reaching a compromise has stiffened the positions of the two sides in a front line that is always porous, but which has essentially been in stalemate for months.
War is over! Peace has not yet begun places at the centre of its research the fragility of a moment of transition in which an old system has fallen and another is about to arise: a chiaroscuro in which only decisions guided by dialogue can guarantee a future. The presence on show of the first flag of peace, created in 1961 by Aldo Capitini, founder of the Italian nonviolent movement, underlines the importance of those who work to build peace.
The exhibition opens with the works of Ukrainian photojournalist Maxim Dondyuk, who presents an immersive installation of the photographic series Culture of Confrontation, Ukraine ’22 and Between Life and Death. The photographs form an excursus that begins with the days of the Orange Revolution in the streets of Kyiv and takes us all the way to the current front of the conflict, to the trenches and bombed villages. Alongside Dondyuk’s unedited shots, a selection from Irish photographer Richard Mosse’s Infra series takes us to the forests of Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mosse, defying the categories of war journalism, documents the forgotten war in North Kivu, and with infrared film portrays landscapes and moments of daily life trapped in a ghastly humanitarian tragedy. The show continues with two works by Terry Atkinson that bear witness to the barbarity of wars in every era – today in Iraq as yesterday in Europe – and highlight the connections between economics and war.
Image : Culture of confrontation, 2023, print on fabric, courtesy Maxim Dondyuk
Exhibition details : April 5 - September 17, 2023 Gallerie delle Prigioni Treviso
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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