Mindbombs

RAF, NSU and IS stand for terrorist groups, whose extremist propaganda and political violence challenge the visual arts to react decisively. 20 years after the attacks of 9/11 and ten years after the appearance of the NSU in autumn 2011, the exhibition Mindbombs is dedicated to the fighting term “terrorism” and critically depicts the power of violence. In doing so, it opens up a highly topical artistic perspective on the history and political iconography of terrorism worldwide.

Effects of terrorism on art and culture
The three-part exhibition is the first to explore simultaneously the effects by revolutionary socialist, right-wing extremist, and jihadist terrorist attacks on visual culture. Capturing the links between artistic and political revolution from 1789 onwards, the exhibition addresses the art historically notable iconic status that images of attacks gain. The artworks and contemporary documents explore what kind of strategies terrorist acts use to attack cultural memory via the media.

Critique of political violence
In their works, the artists refer to the cultural and ideological background in the emergence of political extremism and to the cultural techniques of propaganda. Especially against the background of National Socialist crimes more recent right-wing extremist terrorist acts in Germany, the USA, Norway and New Zealand corroborate how topical and relevant the critique of political violence is. Among others, works by Kader Attia, Forensic Architecture, Ariel Reichman, Morehshin Allahyari, Olaf Metzel, Almut Linde, Henrike Naumann, Thomas Ruff and Gerhard Richter will be shown.