arpeggia:

Matej Košir - Arthistory

“Focus of this series of photographs is our contradictory relationship to the violence, namely the use of violence in order to control it (either to stop it or to prevent its reappearing). History shows that the winner of the violent conflict always has justified reasons to be violent, because he uses his dominance to (re)write the history. Art is, more often than not, instrumentalised, depicting winners as idealised heroes while the loser’s depictions are exposed to iconoclasm. The main problems are that we are always able to justify any kind of violence; that too often only the use of violence is effective in controlling it and that it is immposible to control the violence used to control the violence. Photographic series documents the consequences of violence to censor the depiction of violence and points out our contradictory notion of its use. The original paintings have been subject to censorship and iconoclasm. They depict violent revolutions or events in 19.century, that in today’s terms justify or condemn the use of violence to achieve their aims; judged according to the values that are today most highly appreciated: freedom and democracy.”

Image descriptions from top to bottom:

  • Eugène Delacroix - Liberty leading the People
  • Eugène Delacroix - Liberty leading the People (detail)
  • Jacques-Louis David - The Death of Marat
  • Édouard Manet - The Execution of Emperor Maximilian
  • Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes - The Third of May 1808
  • Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes - The Disasters of War

(via staceythinx)

Source: arpeggia