Parallel universes

Randa Mirza

'We view the horrors that take place throughout the world on a daily basis and our knowledge of what is happening in neighbouring countries makes us responsible for our ignorance, our passivity and our indifference. And yet, our ultimate response is a lingering feeling of total incapacity! How can we live in a world where daily disasters are continuously broadcast? What responsibility do we bear for the availability of such knowledge? Do we enjoy observing the 'pain of others' (cf. Susan Sontag) from a position removed in time and space? What is being communicated and what is not? Are armed conflicts a new source of entertainment? Why and how do the media participate in this paradox? And what is so exotic about war, anyway? Considering this work invites us to watch ourselves watching, and provides an interactive space that engages our imagination. Through its aesthetic quest, it calls on our emotions and inner contradictions, regardless of the contexts of individual works. It aims to reveal the absurdity of human existence in this world we share.' R. MIRZA 2007-2008