|
|
If a Tree Fell in a Forest - Questioning the generational and cultural gaps contributing to online radicalisation |
| Redpilled by Jakob Ganslmeier, Ana Zibelnik at Bergen-Belsen Memorial (DE), 2023 |
If a tree fell in a forest and nobody was around to hear it, did it actually make a sound? Following this philosophical thought experiment, the multi-screen video installation If a Tree Fell in a Forest by Jakob Ganslmeier (DE) and Ana Zibelnik (SI) triggers the question whether perpetratorship we are not aware of, matters. In a time of growing right-wing extremism, the video works Redpilled, Public Enlightenment, A Mirrored Image, and In the Blue deal with ignorance, the accessibility of perpetrator narratives, as well as generational and cultural gaps.
Public Enlightenment and Redpilled address the fast-growing threat of online radicalisation and the visual tactics employed by extremist narratives, often dismissed by the older generation due to their cryptic language and crude aesthetics. In contrast, A Mirrored Image, realised in collaboration with Dutch-Surinamese spoken word artist Onias Landveld, contemplates on the cultural divide between discussions on the Holocaust and colonialism, underscoring our failure to bridge the two narratives.
In the Blue is a video work in which a Norwegian amateur choir, standing on a jetty in the Trondheimfjord, performs an SS song. Had they not been asked to do so by the artist, the friendly singers – who were aware of the song’s origin – would never have sung it. What does it mean when the Ekne choir sings the SS song today? Their singing cannot be regarded as an ideological statement. Still, it poses the question: How long should it take for us to let go of our local past?
The works were produced within the scope of Houses of Darkness (2020-2023), an online cooperation co-funded by Creative Europe and a joint initiative of three WW2 memorial centres reaching out to a young audience: Bergen-Belsen Memorial (DE), Camp Westerbork Memorial Centre (NL), Falstad Centre (NO) and Paradox.
If a Tree Fell in a Forest, partly on view at Bergen-Belsen Memorial, is available for touring now.
|
| read more |
|
| |
Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /domains/paradox.nl/DEFAULT/wp-content/themes/paradox/single-newsletter.php on line 366
Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /domains/paradox.nl/DEFAULT/wp-content/themes/paradox/single-newsletter.php on line 366
![]() |
TAUW to support Counting by Nature |
| © Hans van der Meer, Kekerdom, 2019 |
No other country has collected more data per square kilometre on air, water and soil condition than The Netherlands. Developments in nature are widely monitored by professionals and volunteers, making use of hi-tech methods to down-to-earth counting. Accepting the outcome of scientific data gathering – under pressure in today’s heated environmental debate – has become a serious social issue. Can the debate be helped by showing how it is done?
Hans van der Meer has proven to be able to make polarised subjects approachable by asking questions, combining his video and still images with well-informed, yet personal texts as the already legendary Time to Change (Paradox, 2018), dealing with the future of dairy farming, has made clear.
We are proud to announce that TAUW Foundation believe so as well and has agreed to become the main sponsor of the project. A new Paradox book, travelling exhibition and website, designed by Kummer & Herrman, are due for 2024/2025.
|
| last copies! |
 |
Paradox @ JIPFest Jakarta, Sep 8-24 |
| JIPFest 2023 curatorial team: Asep Topan, Bas Vroege, Swan Ti (left to right) |
Jakarta based curators Swan Ti, Asep Topan and Paradox director Bas Vroege form the curatorial team for the 5th edition of the Indonesian photography festival, founded by Pannafoto in 2019. The main exhibition, entitled GENERATION, will take place in a 1200m2 underground venue in the downtown Blok M shopping mall. The exhibition will be divided in four thematic sections – Future, Disruption, In/Exclusion, Belonging – and will show projects by ca. 25 artists from around the world. The programme for the first week includes artist talks, a lecture as well as a three-day workshop dealing with contemporary curatorial practice aimed at curators, designers as well as photographers.
|
| JIPFest programme |
 |
Ukraine - Hundred Hidden Faces at Rencontres d’Arles Book Awards |
| © Émeric Lhuisset, Dmytro, March 2022 |
Émeric Lhuisset’s book Ukraine – Hundred Hidden Faces has been shortlisted for the 2023 Book Awards exhibition of the Rencontres d’Arles. The tabloid-sized book printed on newspaper stock shows portraits of Ukrainian volunteers who joined the resistance movement immediately after the outbreak of the war in 2022. They all answered two questions:
‘What would you like to see happening now?’
‘What do you think will happen?’.
These were exactly the same questions Lhuisset had asked the people celebrating in 2014, after chasing president Yanukovych of which the conceptually similar Maydan – Hundred Portraits whitnesses. Both books were co-published by Paradox and André Frère Éditions and can also serve as exhibitions.
Émeric Lhuisset will be signing his books at the stand of André Frère Éditions at Arles Books on July 7 from 17.30-19.30
|
| order here |
 |
Suppressed by the Saviour still online, also in Russian |
| Kolpashevo, one of the stories part of Suppressed by the Saviour by Hester den Boer |
Six years ago photographer and journalist Hester den Boer travelled Siberia for six months. She visited former Gulag campsites, interviewed victims of the Stalinist terror, met with historians- some under prosecution themselves – and talked to people who thought Russia was in need of a strong leader. Russia never fully confronted the dark history of the Stalinist period.
With the war in Ukraine still raging, we now know what it results into. Suppressed by the Saviour published by Atlas Contact as a non-fiction book and by Paradox as a trilingual web app and exhibition in 2019 (Melkweg, Amsterdam), brought these opposing views together. You can still find it online! Recommended as well: Hester den Boer’s new book Kamp Erika.
|
| open web app |
|
|
Events
Book signing @ Arles Books |
 |
July 7, 17.30-19.30, André Frère Éditions |
Émeric Lhuisset will be signing Maydan - Hundred Portraits as well as Ukraine - Hundred Hidden Faces at the stand of André Frère Éditions at Arles Books, situated in the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie (ENSP) on July 7 from 17.30-19.30 Order here |
Bergen-Belsen Memorial (DE) showing If a Tree Fell in a Forest |
 |
- December 3, 2023 |
A Mirrored Image made in collaboration with Onias Landveld has a central role in If a Tree Fell in a Forest at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial (see lead article). But the special version also includes the three channel video work 77 Circles, referring to the annual rings of the trees that were cut to uncover the overgrown location of the camp commander's house. As such it expresses the currently felt need to also shed light on the role of the perpetrator when speaking of the holocaust. Bergen-Belsen Memorial |
News
 |
| Multiple awards for His Name Is My Name |
Congrats to Eline Jongsma and Kel O'Neill! Their Instagram based documentary made in the framework of Houses of Darkness, keeps drawing media attention and continues picking up awards. It all started with receiving an IDFA Doclab Special Jury Award for Creative Technology. The project, co-produced with Westerbork and Paradox, was subsequently honoured by the Webby competition and is now part of the Golden Calf competition for digital culture of the Nederlands Filmfestival. His Name Is My Name is an autobiographic story in which Jongsma unravels the true story of her great-grandfather's crimes. Check it out on Instagram! |
 |
| Now You See Me - the associacio |
The collective behind Now You See Me Moria, the book co-published by Paradox in 2021 that also served - and serves - as an exhibition, have created a non-profit organisation under Spanish law in Catalunya. The chosen name Now You See Me will allow them to continue their efforts for making the life of refugees coming to Europe better while not limiting themselves to a specific location.
We wish Noémi and friends lots of success with their important work! see activities |
|
|
|
