WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #90, September 7, 2022
The Art of
Un-War. Krzysztof Wodiczko’s films
and public interventions against militarization and war.
Chris Hedges on the Collapse of Civilizations.
https://account.newday.com/streaming/?film=ART-01&preview=GHlu3DPx5d3xrKIf
My Videos
The
Art Of Un-War New Day Films
Play Video
Renowned artist Krzysztof Wodiczko has practiced socially
engaged art for over five decades and has dedicated his life and art in
denouncing militarization and war. An instigator for social change, Wodiczko’s
powerful public art interventions disrupt the valorization of state-sanctioned
aggression and challenge our complacency towards war, xenophobia and
displacement. The film focuses on Wodiczko's social practice art and the
recurring themes of war, trauma and displacement in Wodiczko's work.
Combining design and technology, Krzysztof Wodiczko’s
projects often function as interventions in public spaces, disrupting the
valorization of state-sanctioned aggression. Wodiczko has dedicated his
life and art in denouncing militarization and war. The Art Of Un-War
follows Wodiczko, an instigator for social change, as he challenges our
complacency towards war, xenophobia and displacement with his unique public
projections. Wodiczko’s trajectory unfolds from his birth in Warsaw during
World War II, to his expulsion from Poland by the communist regime, to today.
This in-depth exploration into the life and art of the Polish born artist
focuses on the recurring themes of war in his work throughout his five decades
plus career. Wodiczko's public projections become impactful responses to the
inequities and horrors of war and injustice.
The film delves into timely works such as Abraham Lincoln War
Veteran Projection in Union Square, NYC, where Wodiczko projects the voices and
images of soldiers from 20th and 21st-century wars onto the statue of Lincoln.
The participants' stories of loss, displacement, abuse, and PTSD combined
with Wodiczko’s own story of trauma emerge in tandem as the projects become a
vehicle for healing. The evolution of Wodiczko’s political art unfolds
throughout the film from his first intervention created in Warsaw in 1968 in
response to censorship, to one of his most ambitious projects and a focal point
of the film - a radical proposal to transform Paris’ Arc De Triomphe war
monument into a site for peace-building research and activism. Wodiczko
counters the monument’s glorification of war and portrayal of distorted
histories by constructing scaffolding around the Arc De Triomphe and
transforming it into its complete antithesis.
https://account.newday.com/streaming/?film=ART-01&preview=GHlu3DPx5d3xrKIf
Chris Hedges. “We Are Not the First Civilization
to Collapse, But We Will Probably Be the Last.” Chris Hedges Report, 8-14-22.
Subject:
The archeological
remains of past civilizations, including those of the prehistoric Cahokia
temple mound complex in Missouri, are sobering reminders of our fate.
[Conclusion] By the 1400s Cahokia had been abandoned. In 1541,
when Hernando de Soto’s invading army descended on what is today
Missouri, looking for gold, nothing but the great mounds remained, relics
of a forgotten past.
This
time the collapse will
be global. It will not be possible, as in ancient societies, to migrate to new
ecosystems rich in natural resources. The steady rise in heat will devastate crop yields and make much of the planet
uninhabitable. Climate scientists warn that once
temperatures rise by 4℃, the earth, at best, will be able to sustain a
billion people.
The
more insurmountable the crisis becomes, the more we, like our prehistoric
ancestors, will retreat into self-defeating responses, violence,
magical thinking and denial.
The
historian Arnold Toynbee, who
singled out unchecked militarism as
the fatal blow to past empires, argued that
civilizations are not murdered, but commit suicide. They fail to adapt to a
crisis, ensuring their own obliteration. Our civilization’s collapse will be
unique in size, magnified by the destructive force of our fossil fuel-driven
industrial society. But it will replicate the familiar patterns of collapse
that toppled civilizations of the past [he subject of the first three-quarters
of the essay]. The difference will be in
scale, and this time there will be no exit.
The
Chris Hedges Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and
support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
No comments:
Post a Comment