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EVENT DESCRIPTION
PODIUM is delighted to present ‘Vitalis Violentia’, a group exhibition that responds to the question of violence from an aesthetic point of view, investigating how one may transform violence into a creative principle. The works by five participating artists, including Dew Kim, Dennis Scholl, Tseng Chien-Ying, Wang Pei, and Hannah Woo, offer the audience valuable yet often ignored insights into crucial aspects of ‘real’ violence that cannot be revealed via mere observation of the social and political scenes, mobilising ideas and affects that are suppressed, relegated as insignificant, or marginalised by mainstream discourse. The exhibition opens on 28 September 2024 (Sat) from 2 to 7 PM and is on view till 23 November 2024 (Sat). Artist Dew Kimwill be present at the opening, while at 4 PM there will be an artist talk conducted in English.
Since the dawn of time, violence has been an intrinsic element of human civilisation, an observation elucidated by seminal thinkers in psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud, in his controversial work ‘Totem and Taboo’, posited that the foundations of society and culture are rooted in a primordial act of violence—the murder of the primal father by his sons. The guilt stemming from such a primitive act, according to the Austrian psychoanalyst, becomes inherent in Western religion, and morality is rooted in the penance demanded by this sense of remorse. Building upon Freud’s insight, Jacques Lacan offers a unique perspective on violence beyond individual psychology. He perceives the unconscious as being structured like a language, with repression serving as a mechanism to relegate disturbing or unacceptable thoughts to the realm of the unconscious. This process of repression, however, does not eliminate violent impulses but rather transforms and allows them to resurface in various guises throughout human culture and history. In other words, violence is a revelation of the struggle with repressed signifiers—it may emerge as an attempt to assert control over the ungovernable aspects of the psyche or as a reaction to the inherent brutality of the symbolic order per se.
With artistic manifestations symbolising and representing manifold shifting paradigms of contemporary culture, it is no surprise that they have always been a crucial device for probing the complex discourses revolving around the notion of violence. From the world-famous iconography of the crucifixion of Christ, where the graphic depiction of torture and execution transmutes into a symbol of divine love and sacrifice, to the viral photo of Donald Trump’s assassination attempt captured by Associated Press (AP) photographer Evan Vucci, which features the bloodied former president punching his fist into the air as Secret Service agents surrounded him. These are just some instances that demonstrate how specific modes of aesthetic production can challenge the viewers to confront the visceral impact of violence, both in its representation and its reality, prompting a deeper reflection on the moral and ethical implications of aggression and brutality.
In ‘Vitalis Violentia’, the participating artists manipulate violence to shock, provoke, but more importantly, to employ it as a tool to disrupt the complacency of the audience, drawing attention to pressing social debates, and revealing the pervasive influence of violence in shaping our collective consciousness. Following the ideas of French philosopher Alain Badiou about the notion of aesthetics, as well as Gilles Deleuze’s concept of ‘violence of sensation’, the exhibited works are not merely a reflection of reality but a mode of production that generates truth, where the act of creation itself becomes a form of violence, transcending mere representation to evoke a raw, unfiltered emotional response.
