Exhibition May 8th – August 8th

“Knowledge of Power in a Time of Terror”

Addres exhibitionspace:

Voorterweg 128, 5611 TS Eindhoven

Open Friday – Saturday 13-18h 
e-mail info@huishenkvisch.eu
mobile 0618436413

with works of:

Aaron van Erp, Louise Bourgeois, Jewyo Rhii, Benoît Hermans, Anke Doberauer, Tim Roda, Ed Templeton, Jimmie Durham, Fratelli Alinari

After the serie of exhibitions around the work Felix in Exile by William Kentridge, to which the exhibition title Not in Exile was given, this year a series of exhibitions will be shown around the remarkable and special painting by Aaron van Erp, Dwarfs discharge at wind force 10. This second series of exhibitions is titled Knowledge of Power in a Time of Terror. Central to this series is the relationship of art and the artist to power, social, political power, but also psychological, sociological and geological powers. Power is an implicit fact that is close to violence and manipulation, but rarely shows itself as an explicit, identifiable opponent. The art and the artist have to deal with this, like everyone else.
The works of art that come together in this series naturally have a theme and specificity that is not subordinate to the theme of the exhibition: the ephemeral phenomenon of power can be sharpened or clarified.
The theme of ‘power’ is topical and in our post-colonial era of resistance movements, state violence and political-economic conflict of interests; it is also a sensitive theme, leading straight to polarization. The artist defends his independence, of course, but does not want to be blind to the culturally undermining effect of power use and manipulation, without falling into political actionism in which the artwork is sacrificed.
The title of the exhibition is drawn from the work of Hamid Dabashi Knowledge and Power in a time of terror, in which the author analyzes the post-colonial power relationship between the West and the Middle East in order to reconcile the Western-constructed image of ’the east’ and expose a brutal colonial rule. He sees it as the task of the intellectual and the artist to break the violence and fear that power uses by letting out a clear counter-voice. In addition, the lecture series (Reith Lectures) by Wole Soyinka The Changing Mask of Fear from 2004 is a source of this theme. He established that the artist and art are part of a social-political climate that in fact determines, colours and influences the work of art: in his words, this connection is ’the fate of the arts’.