The Pixelated Revolution

Tekst stavlja u prvi plan odnos pogleda, slike i nasilja. Na temelju teorijskih postavki Mari-Žoze Mondzen i Žan-Luka Nansija, ovaj odnos se razmatra u aktualnom kontekstu društveno-političke realnosti na Bliskom istoku (Sirija), ali i u širem, globalnom smislu. Polazeći od primjera suvremene vizualne prakse, tekst analiza projekt “Pikselizirana revolucija” libanskog umjetnika Rabija Mruea i interpretira fenomen snimanja vlastite smrti u revolucionarnim i ratnim uvjetima, na nivou koji povezuje nekoliko ključnih elemenata rasprave: vizualni karakter mobilne (telefonske) tehnologije, proizvodnju slike, koncept samo-žrtvovanja i mobilizaciju zajednice u cilju radikalnih promena. Namjera teksta je da potakne na promišljanje uloge slike koja trpi nasilje smrtonsnog pogleda, ali i na implikaciju vanjskog promatrača u tom procesu iz izložbene perspektive ‘pogleda sa strane’.The text foregrounds the relationship between three main elements: gaze, image and violence. Framed by the theoretical propositions in the selected texts by Marie-José Mondzain and Jean-Luc Nancy, this relationship is considered in the context of the current socio-political realities in the Middle East (Syria) but also in the broader, global sense. I take contemporary visual practice as my starting point and consider “The Pixelated Revolution” (the project by the Lebanese artist Rabih Mroué) as exemplary in this context in order to engage with the following phenomenon - recording one’s own death in the revolutionary and wartime conditions, at a level that connects several key elements of the debate: the visual character of mobile (phone) technology, image-producing operations, the concept of self-sacrifice, and the mobilization of communities towards radical transformations. The purpose of this text is to encourage future reflections about the role images perform nowadays (in particular those created under the conditions of lethal threat and violence) and about the implications of an external observer in this process, when looking at such images in the exhibition context from a ‘lateral’ (i.e., supposedly safe and neutral) perspective