Ties of Allegiance

Celestial Gestures is an exhibition co-curated with a collective based in Belgrade, Serbia, the capital of former Yugoslavia, a country that was part of the Non-Aligned Movement, an international organization made up of countries (mainly from the Global South) that didn’t align themselves with the block divisions of the cold-war era. One of the main objectives of the movement was decolonization. The set of recognized structural problems with the movement is, to a greater extent, explored within the exhibited works. The topics that emerge are the issues of utopia, global systems and regimes, mechanisms of management, the potential of worldbuilding and the role played by the three prominent bodies – the bodies of leaders, communities and individuals. Abovementioned power regimes are visualized in two ways; In one of them, as an abstract scheme conceived as a circuit, flow, a linear structure of interconnected points that renders the seemingly impossible and dysfunctional process of the flow of matter through natural and technological elements.

Ties of Allegiance by Jelena Visković draws attention to the role and structure of the concept of exchange and hegemonic powers through the metaphor of diplomatic ceremonial giving. It explores the archive as a playful space - warping the mediums through which images, objects and stories are preserved and presented, interwoven with intimate memories of communities and individuals. A hollow globe, made from lightweight material is suspended in space and time, after it’s fulfilled its representational role as a gift. Satin ribbons, used in ceremonial openings hang from the structure. Small screens attached to the globe display animated gestural expressions. The events are narrated by a rare vintage portable TV cassette radio.

The work engages with the role technology and media played in the formation of NAM, and how the element of spectacle within this distorts information and creates abundance and absence of information at the same time. It considers the role of AI in filling in these gaps in available archival information. AI is used consistently in the work to explore new ways of engaging with archival material.