Participating artists:
Zhanna Kadyrova (Ukraina)
Anri Sala (Albanien-Frankrike)
Snežana Vučetić Bohm (Serbien-Sverige)
Arthur Bondar (Ukraina)
Aziz Hazara (Afghanistan-Tyskland)
Mathilda Frykberg (Sverige)
Joakim Forsgren (Sverige)
Pavel Rotts (Finland)
AHA Collective (Armenien)
PEJVAK (Iran-Kanada)
Mkrtich Tonoyan (Armenien)
Anastasiya Yarovenko (Ukraina)
Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt och Johannes Wahlström (Sverige)
Carl Johan De Geer (Sverige)
Ingela Johansson (Sverige)
Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena (Uruguay-Sverige)
Curators: Sona Stepanyan and Natasha Dahnberg
Excerpt from the exhibition text: Any artistic group statement about the war inherently acknowledges its incompleteness. Moreover, there's a risk of it becoming overly representative, reducing culture and art to commodities. Similarly, any curatorial public statement is inherently political, particularly in the context of an ongoing war, making it especially vulnerable to politicization. Whether or not to discuss the war is a decision every institution faces. However, once the choice is made, it's important to convey our internal logic and trust in the viewer's loyalty and acceptance. Köttinspektionen has a strong tradition of hosting exhibitions with significant political engagement and a keen sensitivity to current challenges. Therefore, we considered it pertinent to invite artists whose artistic practice revolves around questions of war, loss, sorrow and memory.
Victory over the Victory commenced with extensive and purposeful discussions between situated voices of artists, art practitioners who are directly involved in current anti-war efforts, impacted by the consequences of militarism and the belligerent ideologies of their own or other nation-states, or actively engaged in reflecting on historical and contemporary events. A given socio-historical moment is never homogeneous; on the contrary, it is rich in contradictions. Within the framework of this exhibition, various genealogies with clear positions are collected and juxtaposed. The exhibition is an attempt to highlight the personal affective dimensions of collective history. But what happens when we give a voice to one and deprive another of it?
Anri Sala’s film takes us to Sarajevo to follow a story of a musician bravely navigating through the sieged city to join orchestra rehearsals. At every crossing watched by snipers she stops, looks and listens. Should she wait or should she run? Should she wait for the others or take the risk on her own? Aftermath of other Yugoslavian conflicts find their continuation in intimate self portraits of Snežana Vučetić Bohm. In the same room, other war documents are displayed. Ukrainian artist Arthur Bondar has shown original photo collages from an official censored Soviet propagandistic military newspaper - The Red Star justapoxed with images taken by German soldiers while passing through Sandinavia. Another time-based and archival approach is seen in work of Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt and Johannes Wahlström, who have been analyzing and revisiting the hidden and yet omnipresent complexities of the conflict between Palestine and Israel the last 3 decades.
Self-portraiture is a defining element in Vučetić Bohm's artistic journey, tracing its roots back to the very beginning when
her father gave her the first camera. It has since remained an integral part of her practice, evolving alongside her experiences
and perspectives. Self-portrait is also a method that allows the artist not to be in the position of a witness, but to bring a human
dimension and personal experiences into the frame. It becomes means for self-recognition, a process of confronting and
embracing one's ientity amidst the backdrop of global narratives and events. The self-portraits in this exhibition are
part of a larger series that the artist has been shooting for several years, returning
to important places for the history of her family, and country of origin. We see the artist in her grandmother's clothes against
the background of the family house or against the background of the monument to the victims of Yugoslavia in the concentration
camp in Ravensbrück, or with the flag of a country that no longer exists. Looking closer, we notice the direct and questioning
gaze of the artist and the tension from the hand holding the camera remote shutter as if a weapon aimed at oneself.
These non-reportage black-and-white photographs touch upon and reveal multiple facets and complexities of
one single life: personal and collective, forbidden and beyond, traversing realms of gender roles, politics, and intergenerational trauma.
And with their archival distance, they allow one to look at conflicts in a different way, highlighting the attempt to understand and
go against the profound disconnect that often exists between individuals and nations where dialogue is stifled or nonexistent.
Can ever the state-sanctioned bloodshed be morally justified?
- Sona Stepanyan, curator, exhibition Victory over the Victory, Köttinspektionen, Uppsala, 2024
