Violentia: Representing Bodies and Violence

Violentia is a collaborative, interdisciplinary event, organized by current AHVA graduate students meant to showcase the talents of emerging academics, artists, curators, and professionals in the arts.

From Latin violentia, “vehemence, impetuosity” the signification of the word “violence” seems to have reached the contemporary moment unaltered. At the core of human experience, there are no exact synonyms, no substituting phrases to express its meaning—no other words. Violentia: Representing Bodies and Violence invites investigations into the ways violence, whether physical or otherwise, is manifested, read, and inflicted in/on the “body” at both an abstract and corporeal level. Considering the importance of the body—as an object, a community of people, a measure of land, an immaterial model, a metaphorical representation, etc—our symposium encourages a re-evaluation of how the relationship between violence and the body has come to shape art and art history.

This symposium and its concurrent exhibition follow the university’s mandates to create a rich academic environment and to foster intellectual exchange among graduate students by providing a unique opportunity to engage in questions concerning culture mediation within visual art and the histories of art and architecture.

The exhibition is mounted as part of the 42nd Annual AHVA Graduate Symposium, held March 8 in the Audain Art Centre.

Artists: Mitchell F Chan (Art Institute of Chicago), Sepideh Dashti (Western University), Emily Dotson (University of British Columbia), Mona Hedayati (University of Victoria),Julian Pahre (University of British Columbia), Weronika Stepien (University of British Columbia)