Colonial Endurance. Detecting the Algorithm of Violence in Infrastructures

27 July 2023 - 22 October 2023 New Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

The exhibition is curated by TOK/Anna Bitkina and Maria Veits, and includes projects by Seline Baumgartner, Denise Bertschi, Tanja Engelberts, Camille Kaiser, Alexander Morozov, Mbene Mwambene, Yelena Popova, Flora Reznik, Dana Savić, SashaPasha, Makar Tereshin, Katerina Verba, and Willimann/Arai. Project contributors include Aysel Akhundova, Ofri Cnaani, Nikolay Erofeev, Alice Hertzog, Ola Hassanian, Owen Hatherley, Sasha Huber, Samia Henni, Georgy Mamedov, Uriel Orlow, Nikolay Smirnov, Lesia Topolnyk and Anton Valkovsky.

The exhibition project “Colonial Endurance. Detecting the Algorithm of Violence
in Infrastructures” explores persistent mechanisms of exploitation, suppression
and discrimination deeply rooted within infrastructural and architectural systems — both historical and present. The project focuses on decolonial analysis of built environments and industrial infrastructures that have reinforced dependency and hierarchy between Western Europe and its colonies as well as between Russia and the countries that used to be a part of the Russian Empire and the USSR. Additionally, it investigates how alternative principles of care, horizontality and knowledge exchange can be integrated into contemporary spatial and infrastructural visionary policies.

The exhibition showcases recurring strategies of occupation and colonisation that are often seamlessly ingrained within construction processes and appear as instruments of suppression of another territory, context, culture, locality, etc. Detecting this so-called algorithm of violence in various geographic and time contexts, the exhibition examines how remnants of colonial processes and imperialist vision continue to endure through architectural and industrial heritage as well as within ecological landscapes. Research-driven artistic projects at the exhibition call for a critical reevaluation of this persistence, as much of it was established on principles of intrusion towards both people and nature. The idea of looking at the colonial heritage through its industrial aspect that includes extraction, processing, transportation and other infrastructures is stimulated by the intention to understand which alternative models of economic, political and infrastructural relations should come instead of them.

The ongoing military and energetic crisis in Europe demands additional cognitive tools to study the complexity of Russian imperialism and Soviet and post-Soviet colonialism alongside the already well researched notion of accelerated global capitalism and Western compromise. By including examples of Russian inner colonialism and its enduring colonial relations with the countries that were once a part of the Soviet Union the exhibition expands the scholarship of forms of contemporary coloniality. Due to interdependent, and often traumatic, economic and political history many of these countries are still connected or bear remnants of partially operational or neglected industrial heritage and communication infrastructures. Studying these connections through their architectural embodiment contributes to the knowledge of different histories, formats, mutations and consequences of imperialism, colonialism, and militarism. The exhibition also detects manifestations of the post-colonial conditions of the countries affected by European colonialism and its impact on global politics and the environment.

In their investigative projects artists challenge and undermine the social structures and institutions aimed at organising our lives and imagine architectural structures and conditions which could potentially host useful mechanisms for future common and non-violent spatial propositions The project “Colonial Endurance” serves as a platform for discovering and stimulating loopholes in the predetermined social reality, which is based on principles of violence and inequality. Collectively and individually, the exhibition participants develop artistic and scientific tools that could break systemic algorithmic violence.

The exhibition is a part of the bigger project that started with a durational online laboratory, during which most of the exhibition projects have been elaborated with help of artists, experts and researchers. The laboratory and exhibition results will be presented in the form of an open digital archive at the end of 2023.

text by TOK curators

KANAVA is a long-term research project initiated by SASHAPASHA in 2016. It is focused on the memory and history of the Gulag, the Soviet forced-labor camp system established in 1929. The project takes its name from the White Sea-Baltic Canal in northern Karelia, Russia, the first project completed by the USSR’s forced labor system, a system aimed at internal colonization and land development. The Finnish word “Kanava’’ emphasizes the significant presence of Finns, a major minority in Karelia, among the victims of the Gulag during Stalin’s purges.

Beginning at the Belomorkanal in Karelia, the project extends across vast territories of the former USSR, tracing the expansion of the Gulag system. Objects collected by the artists during expeditions in the canal area are displayed on a long table, blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction, personal memories, and history. These objects include remnants from abandoned barracks, workers’ houses, factories, and school buildings, representing a mix of Soviet artifacts and everyday items including a ball of red thread, alluding to Karelian embroidery and serving as a metaphorical tool in navigating the labyrinthine history of the Gulag.

The project also incorporates a video installation featuring hand-carved swans made from rubber tyres, a frequent decorative element found in the region. The swan holds cultural significance in the beliefs of the northern Karelians, and its presence alludes to the transformation of natural habitats due to the construction of the canal. This installation draws from the perspective shift of Russian writer Mikhail Prishvin in his books In the Land of Unfrightened Birds and The Tsar’s Road. In the first book, written before the revolution, Prishvin expresses admiration for the untouched beauty of nature. However, in The Tsar’s Road, written after the construction of the canal, Prishvin glorifies human triumph over nature and justifies the repressive Stalinist regime, portraying the Chekist as a superhuman figure. The artwork parallels the writer’s drastic change in perspective and the substitution of the sacred swan with a rubber representation, symbolizing the folklore- inspired communal housing known as “zhEK-art.” This concept is situated within the context of post- industrial landscapes shaped by the enduring legacy of communist-era construction. Through its various components, KANAVA explores the historical legacy and human experiences within the Gulag system, weaving together narratives of resilience, loss, and the complex relationship between humans and nature