THE Ecologies of Peace

The exhibition highlights alternative approaches through which to cultivate peaceful relations by considering the profound interplay of peacebuilding with restorative, abolitionist, epistemological, and ecological justice. By disentangling peace from “war,” that is its traditional association with “hot” inter- and intrastate armed conflict, and instead recognizing war as encompassing colonial subjugation; occupation; the creation of segregated enclaves, where marginalized communities are confined; the militarized imposition of force during civil protests; gender-based violence; and violent extractive practices leading to ecocide, The Ecologies of Peace attempts to offer a deeper understanding of the transformational work of peace. This perspective suggests that peace does not only entail an end to warfare, but also attending to and devoting social and individual practices to addressing, reconciling, and repairing the losses, injuries, and wounds that haunt both postconflict and preconflict societies. 

The Ecologies of Peace juxtaposes artworks that highlight the ways in which peace, freedom, and democracy are shaped by the realities of war and the industrial military complex with works that assert the unacceptability of such conditions. The exhibition gives visibility to practices of opposition and resistance to the order-making use of force and repressive power and to transformational efforts that reshape the boundaries of political action and praxis. Finally, it underscores the potential of art as a vehicle for reinvention, remediation, and solidarity, directed at the restoration of broken relations among humans as well as with the planet. Through their intersectionalist, situated, and trans-environmentalist perspectives, the artists in the exhibition contribute to destabilizing the deeply rooted acceptance of war and violence and to unweaving hegemonic narratives that shape collective consciousness and worldviews.

The Ecologies of Peace interweaves several pressing constellations of “unpeace” in our time. It delves into the protracted military engagement in Ukraine, explores the enduring aftermath of colonialism, racism, and the carceral system, exposes the effects of patriarchal orders, and navigates the complex histories of conflict in the Middle East, which form the backdrop to the virulent eruption of war in October 2023. Furthermore, it scrutinizes the intricate topography of (future) conflicts driven by the addiction to fossil fuels, resource extractivism, and compounding environmental catastrophes. Within these conflict-ridden scenarios, the exhibition foregrounds a rich repertoire of investigative methodologies from the applied tools of counter-forensics, situated witnessing, and the meticulous archiving of the war machinery to the evocative power of storytelling, philosophical speculation, and prefigurative politics. 

 In the face of a host of global, interwoven, and increasingly complex crises, The Ecologies of Peace raises profound questions about the ethical, ecological, economic, conceptual, and aesthetic norms and practices, both individual and collective, that are at play when describing and reshaping human agency. For whatever the dilemmas wrought from thinking about peace, they indicate that peacefulness is an unending transformational query and a “traveling” idea, marked by the myriad stations, communities, and realities through which it passes.