Hybrid Peace

25 March – 12 May 2019

Stroom, The Hague

Curated by Vasyl Cherepanyn, Visual Culture Research Center

The very basic idea of a united Europe was to establish peace on the continent – where there is Europe, there is peace. This task remains urgent on the political agenda. Yet the EU finds itself surrounded by a belt of wars at its south and east: in the face of technological developments and shifts in the geopolitical landscape, an ongoing hybrid war is establishing itself. Unlike ‘conventional’ warfare, hybrid warfare operates through image production, private armies, cyber warfare and political prisoners. In today’s international status quo, a regime of hybrid peace prevails, where the hybrid nature of war affects political and social conditions far beyond the agents involved in the war alone.

Vasyl Cheperanyn from Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) presents the project Hybrid Peace from 25 March – 12 May 2019, staging installations, screenings, and discussions. Hybrid Peace explores the politicality of truth through visual art and forensic knowledge. Over the course of a 7-week period, the project will develop in multiple thematic directions around the concept of hybrid peace. A work-in-progress exhibition will be constructed, unfolding the concept of hybridity and its entanglements in Stroom’s exhibition space.

Although far removed from war zones, the Netherlands can now claim victims in the Russian – Ukrainian war through the MH17 tragedy. Cyber warfare means military ends are now met through the social means of image production and circulation. A surge of far-right populism has led to a perpetual state of exception for the migrants making their way to Europe through its borderlands. The Hague, City of Peace and Justice, should be at the forefront of recognizing the conditions of hybrid warfare, to imagine its alternative in the field of law, cultural production, and international relations.

With the participation of: Yuriy Hrytsyna (Ukraine), Angelina Kariakina (Ukraine), Oleksiy Radynski (Ukraine), Hito Steyerl (Germany), and Artur Żmijewski (Poland).

Emblem by Uliana Bychenkova, animation by Oleksiy Romanenko (Ukraine).

Hybrid Peace is initiated and realized by Vasyl Cherepanyn, VCRC.

Project: https://www.stroom.nl/activiteiten/tentoonstelling.php?t_id=4628020

Curatorial statement: https://www.stroom.nl/media/HybridPeace_concept.pdf

Special events: https://www.stroom.nl/paginas/pagina.php?pa_id=7661853