Keywords and the power of eloquence

September 15th – November 11th, 2012
Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel

The thematic group exhibition Keywords and the power of eloquence, conceived by the free-lance curator Nadia Schneider Willen for Kunsthaus Baselland, deals with the complex relationship and interactions between language and power. Established as well as younger artists from Europe, the USA, Latin America and Switzerland deal with the theme through drawings, photography, video, text and audio installation.

The powerful have the final say, goes the saying, or in other words: “He who has the language calls the shots.” The struggle for power is often a battle for the prerogative of interpretation and an attempt at the same time to silence the opposition by argument or force. José Restrepo’s video El arte de la retórica manual (2010) expresses this without words: the speech of a politician in the Colombian Senate, apparently delivered to persuade his audience, remains silent. Only its expressive gestures were set to music and his monologue is punctuated by loud thuds of the hands on the lectern.

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