POLITICS OF DISCONTENT

RUI CALÇADA BASTOS, EIRENE EFSTATHIOU, GUDNY ROSA INGIMARSDOTTIR, JESSICA LAJARD, PEDRO A.H. PAIXÃO, DONATO PICCOLO, KEEN SOUHLAL, JONATHAN SULLAM, ROELAND TWEELINCKX, TATIANA WOLSKA and guest PAUL CHAZAL

Curated by Jonathan Sullam

Politics of Discontent is the title of an exhibition that focuses on resistance and self-criticism. The exhibited artworks reflect a dissident attitude towards authority and any other form of sovereign ideology. They question whether discontent and indignation can be used as a strategy, or even a methodology. Defiance, incitement and resistance are the basic premise underlying the selected photographs, sculptures and drawings on display. They stand as an accusation of the established system, denouncing its limitations and impositions.

Despite their literal nature, the exhibition questions the pertinence of the artworks’ depiction as they incorporate within their construct the very system denounced by the artist. This could very well be a critical view of a system whose lack of transparency and justification disqualifies it from any form of legitimacy. Politics of Discontent emerges as an inversion or indignation towards, and within the artwork’s system, aiming to understand if this reactionary form is the expression of an authentic stance or the simple masquerade of deception.

Jonathan Sullam