16 Dec 2016

Paul Chaney: Donetsk Syndrome Diagrammatic at tranzitdisplay, Prague

Paul Chaney's diagram presents in condensed form that which is difficult to imagine and not easily collapsed to the human scale. He asks the question: what is the concrete relationship between the Big Bang and the contemporary stalemated war in Ukraine? If we radically shift our point of view and attempt to see the realities of our lives within the context of the development of matter, and if we accept that the anthropocentric perception of history is not the master key to understanding seemingly local conflicts, then we have a chance of truly perceiving ourselves and our limited capacities as we move beyond the threshold of the Anthropocene epoch.

The exhibition space has become a laboratory. In the first part the audience can see an immense diagram, a graphic visualization of the transformation of matter throughout the deep history of the universe, and in its second part the author follows and weaves the complex threads of geological transformations in addressing their relation to the scaled down socio-economic reality of the human. The ongoing conflict in the Donbas region is thus contextualized as a product of the contingent interaction of slow geological processes and turbulent industrial development. At the end of this schema are presented, like the nerve endings of a dynamic system, concrete human beings who live and suffer. The project itself was started in Donetsk at a time before the military conflict. Due to the escalation of violence, however, it was cut short before completion. Tranzitdisplay thus becomes a laboratory of nomadic research which has not been completed. During the exhibition, Paul Chaney will be working on the part of the diagram which depicts those nerve endings inhabiting the reality of a lived present.