White Night debate continued
Imagining a world without war.
For those who wanted to take part, a lie-down collaborative imagining came next. I led this, inviting people to lie down, close their eyes and to start imagining a world without war. I asked people to speak out loud any aspect of this new world that came to mind and to resist the urge to destroy any part of the picture that was constructed as a result.
The world that came about temporarily for those fifteen or so minutes was green, lush, filled with chocolate, had no locked doors, was relaxing and had a university where people of any age could come and use the facilities to accomplish ideas they had without having to pass any exams or prove their competence. The people who lived there felt no need to be led by anyone else.
Congratulations to everyone for their contributions to the White Night debate ‘Make Love Not War!’. This event was a great success. Devised and planned jointly by students of the Critical Fine Art Practice course at the University of Brighton and the Visual Culture Society of Sussex University with myself, it took place in the University of Brighton gallery at Grand Parade in Brighton in amongst the images of Iraq and Vietnam that make up the exhibition ‘Iraq through the lens of Vietnam’ one of the Brighton Photo Biennial exhibitions that make up the War of Images, Images of War biennial curated by Julian Stallabrass. White Night is a new event in Brighton that celebrates putting the clocks back by many venues staying open until the early hours, with all sorts of things happening.
The premise of the debate was to test the proposition ‘Make Love Not War’ and I was billed to chair the event. From the start I had wanted to give the event to students to lead in order for them to experience facilitating a public discussion of politics within the Institution that is a university. I was interested in what form their political energies take and how they get to be exercised currently.
Esther started proceedings by leading a hand-holding activity which ended with half the group outside the gallery on the street and the other half inside the gallery and the two rows of us facing each other through the glass. I found this strangely moving. We were like two factions or like two different species examining each other. And the holding of hands created an instant connection and awareness of our interdependence as people.
The second part of the event had people talking to people they hadn’t met before about issues relating to war and peace prompted by keywords chosen by Luska and presented by Lucy. Everyone was talking at once, animatedly, in pairs. This was followed by a viewing of videos made by Thomas Blatchford, aka The Thomas Ferguson Band, consisting of excerpts of interviews, imagery and film relating to questions around war, aesthetics and ethics. A debate rounded off the evening with Thomas taking a lead in prompting the discussion and opinions getting quite heated at one point, which made the event exciting and the issues come alive.
Nothing was settled, no resolution was forthcoming, no motions were passed. Instead various arena were opened up as possible spaces for debate and the smorgasbord of activities kept the event lively and stimulating.
Comments about Thomas Hirschhorn's 'Incommensurable Banner' from the Fabrica comments book:
"It's interesting how easy it is to become inured to the suffering of others when viewing a block of images such as these and the others in the University gallery. Photography's failure is how it distances you from suffering whilst pulling you close. There is no 'bodily' contact. The record is away and other, these are other people. The presentation of this work in a sort of discotheque of colour lessens the specialness of each individual event. This won't stop now. That would be naive to think. People are resilient and can learn to cope with all sorts of events, perhaps that is why we will continue to experience and perpetrate aggressive events such as war."
"Although this piece is indeed shocking and extreme I feel it does not so much highlight the suffering inflicted by war as create a gallery of gore that appeals to the dark, voyeuristic side of our nature, that which compels us to slow down when we pass a car accident. We are horrified by what we see, yet we cannnot turn away. We are constantly bombarded by the media reports of bombings and suicide attacks, 'friendly fire incidents' and ghosts of past war atrocities yet we do not allow the victims of these awful events to rest easy, to dredge up these images and display them to an audience which has (largely) never experienced the sorrow of conflict firsthand, an audience who will recoil in horror and make offhand statements about the transience of life and exclaim 'what is the point of it all?' before going to lunch, making light jokes about what they have seen is not a respectful treatment of the dead. Would we respond in the same way if it were images of OUR loved ones splashed across the banner? Would we pace up and down in respectful silence, contemplating all the evil occurring in far flung corners of the world, brought to us safely anaesthetised through the medium of our televisions and the omni-net? No. We would fall to our knees and we would wail."
Comments about Thomas Hirschhorn's 'Incommensurable Banner' from the Fabrica comments book:
"It seems totally surreal and makes you realise how lucky we are to live in a non-war zone!! Well done to photographer – need a lot of courage and bravery!"
"It's horrible, these people's lives ruined or ended."
"It shows the suffering that is hidden by the media so well."
"Lovely colours"
"This is all happening now and in our town EDO/MBM in Brighton manufacturing the components that allow this kind of carnage to continue. SHUT THEM DOWN!"
"I've recently graduated on Media and Popular Culture at Leeds Met … My final year dissertation on film, more exactly, the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and its representation in fiction both in Spain and abroad… It's been a long struggle, most of my life, to know and learn about the recent history of my country: this was banned for ages because of Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975)… Still is kind of difficult to talk about this with both of my parents… Still is hard to today for most spaniards to talk about this… Although the images in today's exhibition made me cry, not much seems new to me and yet, tears can't be prevented from coming out of my eyes 'seeing' what human beings still are inflicting onto other human beings … yet (and again) these horrible images, perhaps in a smaller size are shown to us everyday through the media and it seems to me that perhaps we have grown blind and deaf and mute as if our hearts have stopped beating as if we too are dead!"
"Thanks for putting this up in Brighton. This reality needs to be seen."
"This is an important work. Please take away the wall!"
"Shocking but very valid."
"I started out being brave to view these images and halfway along I was suddenly being confronted with a very sick feeling in my stomach (literally a physical sensation of sickness and pain!!) These images are that powerful!! In reality all these are even hundreds of times more shocking and dreadful. Gruesome."
Comments about Thomas Hirschhorn's 'Incommensurable Banner' from the Fabrica comments book:
"Truth at last."
"Bold and uncompromising, if a little obvious. This is just one truth, framing in an exhibition in that most liberal of cities distorts the message of the piece to bend it purely to one end of the political spectrum. Where are the Al-Queda victims in this picture? Very provoking piece, though, expertly realised."
"Incommensurable!"
"suitably disturbing . . .
comment though that the biggest casualties of war by the end of C20 are civilian 90% i.e. women, children and ineligible' men (UN) . . .
one thing stands out is the absence of caucasian victims thus the exhibition and war is … someplace out there far away …"
"resist the bomb makers – smashEDO"
"Unbelievable – war is disgusting – humanity can be evil. 'War' is an abstract word – until you see these images."
"very good X"
"War is so evil."
"Nauseating and overpowering. This is an exhibition that needs the widest possible audience. If we could get the likes of Blair, Bush and Brown to understand the consequences of their actions."
"If everyone saw these important images there would be no more war!"
"It's good to show the real horror of war – if it's done in our name we should know what it means."
"Powerful and eye opening. I am forever affected and want to make the world a better place. Peace and love is the only way…"
"Appalling and necessary – but I was not sure if the pictures humanised the victims of war or de-humanised them. Not nice. But how could it be?"
