ROOMS OF MUTED VIOLENCE

In the organizer's words:

Rooms of Muted Violence is a solo exhibition by Dutch artist Robert Glas.

Glas' artistic practice is dedicated to the ongoing investigation of bureaucratically produced justice. The resulting works are mostly films and film installations. Glas thus opens up spaces in which one can observe in detail how bureaucracies create justice, what kind of justice they produce, who benefits from it and at whose expense.

At the center of the exhibition is the video installation 1986, Or a Sphinx's Interior (2022). The starting point for this work is the noticeable expansion of the prison system throughout the Western world since the 1980s. Decades of abolitionist practices aimed at the abolition of punitive institutions stand in stark contrast to today's virtually unchallenged calls for harsher punishments.

For this video installation, Glas reconstructed the architectural model of a Rotterdam prison cell on a scale of 1:1. The original was built in 1986 by the renowned Dutch prison architect Carel Weeber. In collaboration with the actor Ali Ben Horsting (in the role of the architect in his younger years), a former inmate of the prison and Weeber himself, a video work was created that examines Weeber's visit to the test model in the 1980s. The initial question - "How do you test a prison cell?" - leads to fundamental reflections on how a life and a body are influenced by imprisonment.

The other works in the exhibition, which are also based on extensive research into the justice system and the European asylum system, are also characterized by a calm and thoughtful tone. For the artist, conversations are the most important instrument for negotiating central political, ideological and social issues. They are based on his interest in the possibilities of using a common language to overcome the breakdown of communication between the formalized world of bureaucratic justice and the everyday world of life.

Price information:

Free admission: Every 4th Saturday of the month. Free admission is always available for visitors up to and including the age of 17 and for students at Oldenburg universities.