When war ends, does peace really begin? An exhibition in Treviso reflects on this question

In Treviso, Fondazione Imago Mundi is hosting the exhibition La guerra è finita! Peace Hasn’t Started Yet, a review where works by 15 artists take turns: Francesco Arena, Terry Atkinson, Massimo Bartolini, Eteri Chkadua, Maxim Dondyuk, Harun Farocki, Leon Golub, Alfredo Jaar, JR, Mario Merz, Richard Mosse, Pedro Reyes, Martha Rosler, Sim Chi Yin, Ran Slavin. The war is over! Peace Has Not Yet Begun, through the selection of artists’ works, invites us to look at the seemingly concluded conflicts of our time and past history and to reflect on the profound difference between the mere closing or stalling of the armed phase of a conflict and the establishment of a true condition of peace.

When a war ends it begins, usually far from media attention, a long time that does not always find fulfillment in a real and lasting peace. In recent times we have seen this happen in Iraq and the Congo, for example, where tensions are now being rekindled after decades. From the moment the United States decided to “end the war,” has the violence in Afghanistan ceased?

Wars therefore end, but when does peace begin? Fondazione Imago Mundi proposes that visitors to the Treviso exhibition seek possible answers through an experiential exhibition itinerary that creates a short-circuit between three different ways of interpreting this very difficult theme: a journey through art history is interwoven with works that express themselves in the most contemporary artistic languages and with photographic shots of an explicit documentary nature.

In all the works selected by Fondazione Imago Mundi, the drama of a peace situation that has begun, but has not really been accomplished, fully resonates.

The exhibition presents, through installations, unpublished photographs by Maxim Dondyuk, a Ukrainian photographer, who has followed the evolution of the situation in his country from 2014 to the present and who takes us inside a war that is still going on. In parallel, Richard Mosse shows us part of the Infra project, a photographic work developed with Kodak Aerochrome infrared film, on the forgotten conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the works of Mario Merz, Alfredo Jaar, Terry Atkinson and Leon Golub we encounter deep reflections on the premises, dynamics and consequences of war. Other works, such as those by Martha Rosler and Harun Farocki, investigate how the media have disseminated the images produced by wars.

Two short video essays commissioned by the Foundation and curated by Francesco Spampinato and Fulvia Strano trace a path that reflects on the importance of images created by the computerization of the battlefield in narrating war and shaping the representation of the enemy, showing, through great names in art history, how the narrative of conflicts has often been entrusted to carefully constructed images.

A full schedule of appointments and meetings with geopolitical experts, scholars, and representatives of civil society is planned to explore the themes covered by the exhibition. The exhibition, with free admission, can be visited on Fridays from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Special opening: Wednesday, April 5, Thursday, April 6 and Monday, April 10 from 3:30 to 6:30 pm. For info: www.fondazioneimagomundi.org

Image: Martha Rosler, Point and Shoot, from the series House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home, New Series (2008, photomontage). Courtesy of the artist, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York

When war ends, does peace really begin? An exhibition in Treviso reflects on this question

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