Disasters of Peace: Curatorial Programme

http://www.disastersofpeace.com/
Informed by Rob Nixon’s book Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (2011), this touring programme, co-curated by Sam Jury (artist filmmaker, University of Hertfordshire) draws together artist filmmakers who in a myriad of ways challenge the prevalent representations of disaster, beyond the apparatus of spectacle. Featured here are films that in varying ways respond to the ideas of transformation and re-imagining, works that are positioned in a place where we are as likely to look back as we are to imagine a future. The films featured in the programme engage with the following questions: How then can we represent these caustic aftermaths to expose the slow violence they continue to enact? What languages can transform the tragic legacy of recent histories into a constructive future view? By ‘the tragic legacy of recent histories’ we mean the aftermath of the Cold War, the failed colonial projects giving rise to civil war and mass migration, the unfettered consumption that is slowly destroying the planet, the shifts towards political extremes, and the defiance of the rule of law through mass surveillance. . We are beset by dis-ease and forebodings of disaster, yet major disasters have already happened: the genocides of indigenous populations, Chernobyl and Fukushima, the Syrian refugee crises, Hurricane Harvey (Texas), Hurricane Maria (Puerto Rico), to name but a few. In an attempt to reinvent languages with which we talk about disaster, the aim of this programme is to feature artists from diverse range of countries and continents. So far Disasters of Peace featured the works from Argentina, Egypt, Canada, Greece, Chechnya, India, Poland, UK and USA. Previous screenings include: Experiments in Cinema Festival (New Mexico), the Horse Hospital (London), Northwest Film Forum (Seattle), Ann Arbor Film Festival (Michigan). Forthcoming in November are vols. 5 and 6 at the Biennial of the Moving Image (Buenos Aires) and the Whitechapel Gallery (London), respectively. Various editions of the programme featured my films: Batum (2016) and I Think You Should Come to America (2017).