The Lucifer Effect exhibition at DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, inspired by the book of the same title by leading American psychologist Philip Zimbardo, aims to show how people can turn evil with surprisingly little effort. Installations, videos, grafitti, photographs and other works by artists such as Jenny Holzer, Hans Haacke, Artur Żmijewski and the Czech artist Magdalena Jetelová, deal with issues of power, authority and corruption.
The ease with which one can fail morally is illustrated by the landmark psychology experiments conducted at American universities in the 1960s and 70s and whose artistic reconstructions in the works of Rod Dickinson and Artur Żmijewski constitute the opening part of the exhibition.
Works by artists such as Hans Haacke, Jenny Holzer, Harun Farocki, Antoni Muntadas or the Bureau d’études group, demonstrate the general principle that power corrupts. On the other hand, artists such as Krzysztof Wodiczko, empower the disenfranchised and powerless by giving them a voice in public space Selected works by Czech artists, like an extensive installation by Magdalena Jetelová, reflect the contentious issues of contemporary Czech society, such as corruption and the relation between politics and organized crime.
The exhibition includes a large installation The Art of Not Being Governed Like That that represents a response to the Stuttgart 21 development, organized by a group of German artists, architects and theoreticians, originally presented at the Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart at the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011.
The exhibition also introduces to the Czech public Philip Zimbardo’s Heroic Imagination Project, the aim of which is to inspire and prepare “ordinary” people for the role of “heroes in-waiting” and which documents cases of unexpected heroic deeds in extreme situations. According to Zimbardo, an exemplary case embodying the concept of heroic imagination is Václav Havel.
The exhibition also features an open call addressed to the public and artists, whose selected contributions will complement the project. More info at www.dox.cz and http://lucifereffect.dox.cz.
Accompanying Events:
Regular interviews with representatives of different fields – politicians, activists, artists, psychologists, sociologists and other professionals – will take place during the exhibition.
More at www.dox.cz