Middle East Europe
January 24, 2012 - Artists from Europe and the Middle East look at the Israeil-Palestinian conflict.
Tamara Moyzes and Shlomi Yaffe: Inte(g)race
The DOX Centre for Contemporary Art starts the new year with an eye-opening exhibition by artists from Europe and the Middle East, looking at the current conflict there as well as historical and contemporary ties between the two regions.
The exhibition Middle East Europe presents works of European artists who are responding to the Middle Eastern conflict, in direct confrontation with the works of their Palestinian and Israeli counterparts. Many artists find the roots of today’s problem in European anti-Semitism, which led to the exodus of Jews to Palestine. Others observe the tension between cultures in today’s Europe and show how thin the line between fear, religious or racial intolerance and physical violence is, be it in today’s expressions of hatred of Jews or Islamophobia.
On a more general level, the exhibition serves as a model study of the mechanisms of political art in general. In this context the following questions arise: Can an artist comment on problems with which he/she has no personal experience? How does the reception of a work of art change when it is moved from the country of its origin to the place it is concerned with and how does this transfer change its meaning? Is there a fundamental difference between art and activism? Does art have an effect on the events it describes? And is anyone actually interested?
Middle East Europe runs from January 26 to April 20 at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art. For more information, visit Dox.cz.
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