THE PALESTINIAN PAVILION
WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF ART?
A MANIFESTO AGAINST THE STATE OF THE WORLD
In a world where genocide unfolds before our very eyes, shielded by nation-state rhetoric and bolstered by the imperial powers of our times, we beat witness to unspeakable horrors. This witnessing is not metaphorical, it is stark reality. To witness now is to be complicit; ignorance is no excuse, and inaction is cowardice.
What is it that cannot be stopped?
The global state structure, which dominated the 20th century, not only allows but actively enables genocide in Gaza and elsewhere in this world. Every genocide is perpetuated by a state. This machinery of destruction, guided by settler colonialism, fueled by capitalism, empowered by technological might, and covered by complicit media giants, must be dismantled. We are confronted with ongoing efforts to alienate us from our political agency and the ability to strive towards a moral and just world for all. We ask: If this level of atrocity is now acceptable, then what is deemed unacceptable? We must reconsider what structures national identities have produced and restore our severed connection to the land as a source of our identity and political existence.
The Palestinian struggle and resistance comes to remind us of what should not be forgotten: the people and the land embody each other, in time and place.It is within this unbreakable bond that we envision the future, it is within this bond that we learn from the past, and through it we engage with our present. We refuse the state of the world: the brutality of maintaining the hegemony of the powerful and the complicity of those who turn a blind eye to injustice.
What role can art and poetry play in a future built on genocide?
The Zionist state's atrocities permeate every level of existence. It devours all human knowledge and science by utilising technology and social engineering to produce killing targets and destruction lists. Within these new artificial intelligence technologies, every total meaning can be devoured, every total meaning can kill.Now is the time for art and poetry. For art that rejects the locia of prevailing power. For poetry that resists the totalising narratives that fuel the killing machines of the perpetrator. Art is inherently political; in its message, production, and presentation. It engages with society, assuming a role either in complicity or resistance.
Art and poetry represent our liberated knowledge, freed from the belly of the beast. This moment demands that we reclaim our political agency; in its clarity, it empowers us to turn imagination into affirmative actions, forging poetic structures of collectivity; a return to the essence of our humanity. We belong to the world, to the earth, to the land, and through this agency, we move, act, and refuse to be silent accomplices to the state's atrocities. We cannot ignore the oppressive conditions under which creativity thrives. Faced with censorship or co-option, we must resist glorifying the regime or fading into obscurity.
We must defend our agency as political beings, stateless as humanity itself, collective as what our societies are, we are bound to organize and resist on multiple fronts to halt the genocide and prevent it as a future.
PALESTINE IS THE WORLD IN ITS FUTURE TENSE.
Kunstverein Aughrim is proud to amplify this vital manifesto of the Palestinian Pavilion, authored collectively by an anonymous group of artists and cultural producers.
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In solidarity - FREE PALESTINE