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Art exhibition / 13.10—13.11.2022
Kapellhaus / 35, 28 May street
“War is the territory of uncertainty; three quarters of those things on which action in war is built lie in the fog of more or less great uncertainty”
Carl von Clausewitz, On war (1816–30)
Almost all countries in our region have been hit by wars of varying intensity in recent years. As a result of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there was a dizzying cascade of armed conflicts.
The acts of war are inevitably accompanied by mutual accusations, so that the truth disappears in an impenetrable wall of fog. Above all, however, immeasurable human suffering is piling up.
In his treatise “On Perpetual Peace”, Kant put war in opposition to a “republican constitution” which can guarantee peace, because if the citizens themselves are allowed to decide the “tribulations of war” they will hardly want to start “a game so evil”.
Nevertheless, many societies are now asking themselves whether, despite all their praiseworthy pacifism, they would not be well advised to maintain a minimum of defensive capabilities.
At the same time, virtues that have long been forgotten, such as fearlessness, civil courage and patriotism reemerge, as exemplified by the Ukrainian territorial defense force, which Clausewitz calls a people’s war. And what until recently was considered toxic masculinity, is now considered bravery.
The exhibition
The exhibition The Fog of War is organized by Goethe-Zentrum Baku, co-funded by European Union Delegation, supported by Kapellhaus and coordinated by PlatformArt.
The project brings together artists from Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Norway, Nigeria as well as from Germany in an exhibition that allows very subjective approaches to the tragedy of war. It is less about documentary strategies than about insights into the human condition itself, i. e. the “treasure of souls that was extorted from so many” as Andreas Gryphius laments in his sonnet “Tears of the Fatherland” in the middle of the Thirty Years’ War.
The artists may even succeed, in the symbolic realm of art, in “waking the dead and reassembling what has been shattered”, as Walter Benjamin calls out to the angel in Paul Klee’s drawing “Angelus Novus”.
As a cultural institute, we do not want to leave the interpretation of what is happening to politicians, generals and journalists alone, but rather expose it to the incorruptible gaze of art in the hope that the fog of war may lift a little.
Artists
Karo Akpokiere, Nigeria ⁄ Germany
Orkhan Huseynov, Azerbaijan
Verena Issel, Norway ⁄ Germany
Nikita Kadan, Ukraine
Dmytro Kozatskyi, Ukraine
Maria Kulikovska, Ukraine
Almagul Menlibayeva, Kazakhstan ⁄ Germany
Sabina Shikhlinskaya, Azerbaijan
Frank Thiel, Germany
Curator
Alfons Hug, Goethe-Zentrum Baku
Opening
13.10.2022
19:00
Exhibition
14.10–13.11.2022
Tue–Sun / 14:00–19:00
Free Entrance
