[artinfo] the return of repression, Pavilion Unicredit, Bucharest
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Sat Sep 12 17:27:42 CEST 2009
Exploring the return of repression
Pavilion Unicredit
Sos. Nicolae Titulescu nr. 1 (Piata Victoriei), Bucharest
Phone: +40311034131
Fax: +401031216
Contact: <mailto:pavilion at pavilionmagazine.org>pavilion at pavilionmagazine.org
<http://www.pavilionunicredit.org>www.pavilionunicredit.org
September 10 - November 22, 2009
Opening: September 10, 2009, 19.00 hours
Participants: Luke Fowler (GB), Jean Genet (FR),
Hanif Kureishi (GB), Thomas Hirschhorn (CH),
Renzo Martens (NL/CG), Alex Mirutziu (RO), Naeem
Mohaiemen (BD), Sebastian Moldovan (RO), Taller
Popular De Serigrafia (AR), Colm Toibin (IE),
Michel Tournier (FR), Pavilion Resource Room (RO).
Curator: Razvan Ion
'The return of the repressed' is a crucial theme,
a key to understanding recent history. 'The
project of the West, the Nietzschean project, has
been to drive out religion and to produce a
secular society in which men and women make their
own values, because morality is gone', writes
Hanif Kureishi, British writer of Pakistani
descent. 'Then suddenly radical religion returns
from the Third World. How can you not laugh at
that? How can you not find that a deep historical
irony?'
The return of the repressed is the process
whereby repressed elements, preserved in the
unconscious, tend to reappear, in consciousness
or in behavior, in the shape of secondary and
more or less unrecognizable 'derivatives of the
unconscious.' This return of the repressed, of
ideologies forced to marginalization, of
sexuality subject to forced secrecy, has
resulted, in recent years, in an almost dramatic
change of a society filled with anguish,
hallucinations, repression imposed by unnecessary
regulations that serve to the repressive violence
of governments against their own citizens.
Repression as a conscious and voluntary
psychological process, consisting of giving up
the fulfillment of a desire which is not in full
accord with the moral being, leads to the
annihilation and alienation of the simplest
desires and rebellions.
The main apprehension is now the model of a new
international division of labour. This concept
has apparently been borrowed by the capitalist
leaders from the old socialists, and it is
actually hiding something even harsher, something
that will bring forth the strengthening of the
state as instrument of repression. The new
international division of labour is a more
important issue to discuss than others, because
it is, perhaps, the most important cause of both
the political and the civil repression.
On the other hand, if we examine carefully the
present legal system, it is reveal itself as a
revolting system, supporting the class
exploitation, the radicalization of the chasm
among social classes and the supremacy of the
white heteronormative and macho-patriarchal
majority. The legal system supports the creation
of the political obedience and it deals with the
adjustment of the value of work. Actually, it
protects the capital creation and a type of legal
inequity.
In order to understand the main effects of the
state violence, we also have to consider the
alternative: the social assistance for the poor
and for the working class. Frances Fox-Piven and
Richard Cloward wrote in New Class War: 'the
connection between the income maintenance
programs, the labour market and profits is
indirect, but not complicated'. Too much social
democracy will make people stop being grateful
for low wages and poor work conditions. Thus,
even with the converse, the link between state
repression, labour market and profits is not
complicated at all.
Repression manages poverty. Poverty depresses
wages. Low wages increase the rate of
exploitation and create profit. Which is the main
purpose of the state. (Excerpt from: Razvan Ion,
'Exploring the return of repression' in the
newspaper 'Exploring the return of repression').
Discursive Events: Urban Larssen (SE), Sina
Najafi (USA), Alex Mirutziu (RO), Cosmin Marian
(RO), Sebastian Moldovan (RO).
Publication/Newspaper: 32 pages, 31,5 x 42 cm,
b/w, english. distributed for free.
With texts by Andrei Craciun (RO), Tatjana Greif
(SI), Daraka Larimore Hall (NO), Razvan Ion
(RO), Rolling Thunder (USA), Ronald F. King
(USA), Urban Larssen (SE), Jose Louis Meiras
(AR), Suzana Milevska (MK), Naeem Mohaiemen (BD),
Maria Eva Blotta & Diego Posadas (AR), Eugen
Radescu (RO), Michel Tournier (FR).
With special booklet insert by Taller Popular De Serigrafia (AR).
Free PDF download of the publications at
<http://www.pavilionunicredit.org/publicatii.html>www.pavilionunicredit.org/publicatii.html
Assistant curator: Silvia Vasilescu
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