What conditions make violence conceivable?

What is (not) violence? explores the relational conditions that can precede a violent act. Taking violence as a structural and cultural phenomenon, the work focuses on the threshold at which another person’s experience ceases to limit what can be done to them.

Two augmented reality experiences place the viewer before the same sculptural figure, offering contrasting ways of relating to it. One fosters proximity and recognition, inviting the viewer to consider the figure as a subject with an experience of its own. The other introduces distance and a context that progressively makes its individuality less accessible.

The work does not represent violence itself. Instead, it makes perceptible the shift between recognising the other as a subject and reducing them to an object or a subordinate position. Looking becomes an active, responsible gesture: the way another person is perceived and valued helps shape the possibilities of acting towards them.

Within this space before action, recognition offers a possibility of interrupting the processes through which violence becomes conceivable and enactable.

WHAT IS (NOT) VIOLENCE?

AR video installation, 2026