Video screening: Archeology of Violence
Archeology of Violence is a moving image installation in the form of a series of three films, 'Reminder of creeping intentionality' (14 min), 'Politics of assembly' (12 min), and 'Don't comment on existence' (18 min). By provoking a radical shift against ‘neutrality’ and ‘universalism’, Nabil Aniss sheds light on the severe violence and mutilation that political institutions inflict on diasporic bodies under the guise of impartiality. Aniss’ work, therefore, explores the complex interplay between power, identity, and marginalization, challenging the facade of neutrality that conceals systemic violence. Archeology of Violence delves deeply into how the notion of neutrality from political or arts institutions is a form of violence in itself, by which diasporic bodies face physical segregation and mutilation, revealing how the intellectual and political effects of violence manifest in the social spheres of labor, health, and education. Consequently, Aniss demands resistance to this obfuscation of violence, by exposing the paradoxical paradigm of the dominant society which utilises “nothing justifies violence” as a form of self-preservation. Re-appropriations of violence, such as the self-mutilation rituals of the Gnawa society in Morocco, become an instrument of resistance against the facade of neutrality.
The video screening will be followed by a Q&A with performance artist and curator Yasmina Reggad.