...OUT OF HERE: The Veterans Project

Nov. 4, 2009 – March 28, 2010

 

Boston, Mass.—The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston presents a new large-scale video installation by Krzysztof Wodiczko focusing on the experience of war in Iraq. Based on the artist’s conversations with soldiers who have returned from Iraq as well as Iraqi civilians, the new work builds on their memories of the chaos and confusion of war. Since 1980, Wodiczko has created more than 80 projections of politically-charged images on civic buildings and monuments worldwide. He was selected to represent Poland at the 53^rd Venice Biennale (2009) and was awarded the Hiroshima Art Prize (1999) for his contribution as an artist to world peace. ...OUT OF HERE: The Veterans Project is on view at the ICA from Nov. 4, 2009 through March 28, 2010.

 

“Wodiczko’s work gives voice to individuals with extraordinary stories, revealing issues of conflict, vulnerability and survival through moving projections of image and sound,” says ICA Director Jill Medvedow. “Our 1998 collaboration with the artist, the Bunker Hill Monument Projection, drew attention to Boston residents whose lives had been devastated by violence and silence. We are honored to be working with the artist again, on a project of such timeliness and importance.”

 

“Through multiple projections and audio, ...OUT OF HERE: The Veterans Project re-creates the ambiguity of war conditions inside the ICA gallery, bringing us closer to understanding the physical realities of war as well as its emotional and psychological impact,” says Randi Hopkins, associate curator at the ICA. “Resembling a warehouse or military shelter, the gallery walls appear pierced or broken. What is happening outside is very near, very threatening, yet only partly understood.”

 

Since 2008, Wodiczko has been exploring the experience of veterans in a number of different works. The Veteran Vehicle Project (2008) and the War Veteran Vehicle (2009) illustrated the complexity of social reintegration for returning soldiers through projections of their words and recordings of their testimonies. In the Veterans’ Flame (2009), video of a flickering candle moved in sync with the sound of veterans’ telling their stories. Wodiczko’s work for the ICA presents the veterans’ experience from a different perspective. In place of recordings of the participants’ voices, the artist has—for the first time—woven his conversations with soldiers and civilians into a dramatic narrative representing their collective memories of the experience of war.

 

In the installation, the routine sounds of life are interrupted by the noise of destruction and chaos as Wodiczko’s narrative unfolds across three walls of the gallery. This immersive chronicle is based on the artist’s contact with medics, soldiers and refugees affected by the current conflict in Iraq. These participants described their experiences and shared with the artist video and audio of life during wartime—from the daily broadcast of prayers and interactions with local children, to the distinctive sound of Humvees in transit or of sniper fire erupting. Created from their stories and accounts, the projected scenario reflects physical and psychological environment of combat, as well as the fragmented way experiences are perceived in distressing or uncertain situations.

 

Significantly, the artist has expanded our notion of the word “veteran” in his work, employing the term to encompass civilians as well as military personnel. This subtle shift in the way the artist uses the word expresses an attempt to re-think the roles of all parties impacted by armed conflicts, and of re-evaluating our concept of war. 

 

Wodiczko’s belief in art’s transformative potential is evident as ...OUT OF HERE: The Veterans Project unfolds. Damage fades, and the physical scars of war seem to disappear — just before the film loops back to the beginning.

 

“Only those who went through this experience of war can understand what really happens in this situation,” says Wodiczko. “But at least perhaps through the exhibition we come to understand how little we understand.”

 

 

Artist bio
Krzysztof Wodiczko (born Poland, 1943) is known worldwide for his pioneering, large-scale video projections on landmark architecture and public monuments, and for his more recent, interior projections. His politically-charged works explore the relationship between art, democracy, trauma and healing. In 1998, the ICA commissioned Wodiczko’s “Bunker Hill Monument Projection”, dealing with gun violence in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood, as part of the exhibition Let Freedom Ring. His other recent works include “Guests,” examining the often overlooked situation of immigrant workers in Europe, created for the 53^rd Venice Biennale (2009), to which Wodiczko was the Polish representative, and “Veterans’ Flame,” which gives unusual visual representation to the voices of soldiers who have returned from active duty, installed on New York’s Governor’s Island as part of “This World & Nearer Ones” presented by Creative Time (Summer 2009). Other works involving veterans are the Veteran Vehicle Project (2008) and the War Veteran Vehicle (2009) illustrating the complexity of social reintegration for returning soldiers. Wodiczko received the 1999 Hiroshima Art Prize for his contribution as an artist to world peace, and the 2004 College Art Association Award for Distinguished Body of Work. Currently, Wodiczko heads the Interrogative Design Group and is Director of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He lives and works in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New York City.