C0N10UR

C0N10UR and argos present Small Acts of Violence. You’re invited to walk through a low landscape of broken ceramics vases, moldy collages and brick walls. Wait in the seating area for a caring guide to welcome you into a fabric cocoon, and experience the artist Aay Liparoto’s immersive cinematic Virtual Reality work at the heart of this exhibition.

Do you consent to participate in this experience? Do you choose to stay or will you leave? In this exhibition, you cannot just watch passively. You choose the loving family situations you gaze on, or turn it away from. Small Acts of Violence makes you physically feel how the boundaries constantly shift between safe and unsafe, between love and violence. It’s surreal, recognizable, and elusive at the same time. You enter a loving, volatile universe. Stories of intimate violence are not shunned; instead motivations are explored and unpacked. You’re invited to reflect on your own behaviors and assert your own boundaries. On your path in this sensuous, enticing world, you’re surrounded by soft fabrics and sharp edges.

Afterwards, you’ll be cared for by the guide, as you’re invited to reflect on your experience in the seating area. Listen to the story your body is telling you.

I called it Love
I should have called it Trap
“I trap you!” I should have said tenderly
At the end of a long day
- Kae Tempest

What actions do you perform in the name of love? What bad behaviors do you blame on love? Small Acts of Violence is a cinematic virtual reality experience that makes you physically aware of the relationship between love and nonconsensual violence. Your body is immersed in a beautiful, sexual, tender, and grotesque landscape. We hear overlapping and melting testimonies while watching caring and domestic scenes. A central figure devotedly guides you through a soft bubble of familiar objects, kitschy and colorful.

The stories are based on true personal experiences of women, nonbinary and non-cis male perpetrators of domestic violence and self harm. They challenge assumptions about domestic violence. Who is a victim? Who is perpetrator? Small Acts of Violence is an invitation to collectively pursue a love free of violence.

Aay Liparoto places you among alluring pastels in a glowing space where the voice of Love welcomes you, reminding you of your autonomy. As often in their work, they explore the (social and institutional) boundaries that define our intimate relationships and the power relations that intervene on our daily lives and bodies.

Shown at argos Brussels (BE) Sep 07-Dec 2023, IFFRotterdam (NL) Jan 27-Feb 02 2024.