Other People’s Problems | Conflicts and Paradoxes
This exhibition is concerned with other people’s problems, conflicts that do not touch us directly and confrontations stemming from the incompatibility between opposing interests. The works examine various aspects of such confrontations, and thus shed light on religious, political, economic or gender-related sites of contention, as given expression in visual art. Examples include the predicament of Libyan refugees stranded at sea while trying to reach a safe haven, who receive no help from passing European ships; mythological conflicts such as the story of Medea, who kills her two sons to avenge her husband’s betrayal; the tragedy of political activists in Iran who are assassinated because of their ideas; and additional conflicts concerning the destruction of the ecology, corruptive powers, and individual ethical struggles.
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Although these problems do not seem to touch us personally, their very existence hints at the possibility that they will eventually appear on our doorstep, when it might already be too late. Moreover, the lack of empathy and compassion that most of us exhibit when faced with other people’s problems may come full circle one day to hit us. In this sense, other people’s problems are actually our own, and we should treat them as such.
