While the organizers and participants of Documenta 15 attempted to construct a utopian world within exhibition halls, ignoring the din of war, I sought to capture the juxtaposition of these approaches, revealing the intellectual inadequacy of “institutional curating.”

Art today cannot simply be a “social practice” of sharing experiences. It must be an intervention that deconstructs the cult of power (embodied by Hans Otto Woellke) and recognizes the biological unity of suffering (symbolized by the sewn hands), thereby filling the ethical void left behind by the contemporary Western art world.

The performance featuring hand-sewing leads into the work “Dragged Threads,” shifting the focus from maps and territories to the human body and emotions. It asks: are we willing to acknowledge the pain of the “other” as being as significant as our own, in order to find a way out of the impasse of hatred?

The shot put symbolizes the connection between Hans Otto Woellke Nazi triumph at the 1936 Olympics and the tragedy of Khatyn. The death of this officer-athlete at the hands of partisans became the pretext for a punitive operation and the complete destruction of the village and its inhabitants.

This performance deconstructs the image of the propaganda “hero,” showing how an athletic achievement was transformed into an act of inhumane violence and the collective death of civilians.

It demonstrates the mechanics of modern warfare: the transformation of propaganda “heroes” into executioners and the substitution of human life with geopolitical myths, where “acts of vengeance” are justified by the cult of force.

The series of performances were realized on 11.09. 2022 Kassel, Germany