BLAST: aesthetics of violence between image, video and document

BLAST aesthetics of violence between image, video and document is an exhibition, conceived and curated by Jessica Bianchera and Marta Ferretti, together with Giulia Costa, with the curatorial advice of with the curatorial advice of Beatrice Benedetti and Nina Fiocco, realized on the occasion of the XVI edition of ArtVerona, within the Video&TheCity program, which will be held from October 15 to 19 in the spaces of Palazzo Poste, a prestigious building designed by Ettore Fagiuoli in the 1920s, former headquarters of the Italian Post Office, which reopens the Salone degli Sportelli to the city after its transfer to private ownership and restoration work, encouraging the encounter between ancient and contemporary, returning to the city a place of great historical and architectural importance.

The exhibition – realized with the precious contribution of Boccanera Gallery, Galleria Giorgio Persano, Galleria Studio G7, Laveronica arte contemporanea, Mazzoleni, mor charpentier, MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Prometeo Gallery, Rodriguez Gallery, Spazio Cordis – presents a selection of internationally renowned artists together with young people from different cultural backgrounds, who use video and moving image to analyze and witness different “categories” of violence in individual and collective contexts, often incorporating new technologies and modes of digital circulation: Lida Abdul, Simona Andrioletti, Edgardo Aragón, Sofia Borelli, Elisa Caldana, Daniela Comani, Forensic Architecture, Regina José Galindo, Rodrigo Garrido, Debora Hirsch, Inhabitants, Michal Martychowiec, Rebecca Moccia, Giuliana Racco, belit sağ, Santiago Sierra, Diego Tonus, Chiara Ventura, Amir Yatziv, Dagmawi Ymer.

It will also be possible to consult documents and works from some self-organized digital video archives including LOOP Barcelona, bak.ma and Archivio delle memorie migranti.
The project aims to explore in a broad and participatory way the relationship between violence, document and public truth through the use of video. In particular, it focuses on video as a tool for documentation, research and narrative elaboration, addressing the concept of violence as a moral, social, political category and as a relative dimension, which is not only composed of explicit gestures and situations but also of subtle, masked actions.

Taking into consideration some of the current artistic trends that make their own methodologies and practices of research and production of images, data and information coming from transversal fields such as forensic sciences, architecture, journalism and activism, BLAST wants to develop a shared reflection on different ways of perceiving, analyzing and returning episodes and dynamics of force, violence and power on an individual but also collective level and on their representation and digital distribution.