EXHIBITION OF CRUELTY

Welcome to the Institute of Behavioral Studies!

The performance Exhibition of cruelty is inspired by English writer J.G. Ballard’s experimental short story „The Atrocity Exhibition,“ which explores the human brain’s inability to process the atrocities committed by humanity during the 20th century. The main character becomes so obsessed with them that he starts to create a kind of theatrical re-enactments of, for example, the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima or the napalm bombing in Vietnam. At a time when, through the situation in Ukraine, war is once again part of our everyday lives, it is important to note our tendency to become insensitive to the controversies of the arms industry and the fact that we start to see the use of weapons as normal. For example, in 2017, the Czech Republic exported military material to 37 countries that have serious human rights violations and lack arms control standards (source: Amnesty International). The latest models of weapon systems, not only from Czech manufacturers, are presented every three years at the IDET international defence and security technology fair in Brno (this year’s edition 24-26 May 2023), which contributes to the perception of weapons as something as common as agricultural machinery, cars or education.

For most of us, war is nothing more than an exhibition of cruel pictures and sounds that send unpleasant chills down our spines.

For people who have experienced war, it will forever remain stored in the positions they take with their bodies while sleeping in bed, in the longings and traumas that spring to mind from the sight of a strange angle of a wall or an irregular curvature of a balcony.

„Don’t worry. I want to start a war. But in a way that makes sense. We have to relive it for ourselves to understand it.“