NOT/CHESS

NOT/CHESS
pARTner residence
Villa Muller, Feldkirch, Austria
monotype, installation
2022



It is customary to compare war with chess. Two equal sides, respect for the opponent, a proven strategy, clearly defined rules. There are no bad and good, black and white are just a formal designation of sides. Logical moves, wise calculation. The sacrifice of figures is justified by a higher purpose.
War is nothing like it. It is chaos, a raging element (storm?) of violence. Blood spilled for no reason, lives stolen outside the rules, tactical decisions made solely out of bloodlust. Violence without rhyme or reason. Victims whose only reason for killing is to please their killer. Agreements broken at the same time as accepted.
When the rules of the game exist for only one side, the game ends and something completely different begins. Conscious destruction. A crime against humanity. Genocide.
In this non/chess, on this side of the board, people, citizens are not pawns. And they never were, and no one should see us as such, acceptable sacrifices for a higher purpose. Each of us, each human life, women, men, soldiers, civilians, young, old is a king in this game. Every lost life is an irreparable loss, a terrible loss that cannot be relived.
Nevertheless, the game continues because it is not a game but a war.