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In the Absence of Bombs: Art, War, and Silence
Not yet published
Expected 8 Sep 26With testimonies from artists, poets and practitioners based in zones of conflict, this reader outlines how creativity can combat institutional apathy
When unspeakable violence happens before our eyes, and permeates our world to the point where we cannot escape, why do political, academic and cultural institutions retreat into silence? As part of Valiz’s Antennae series, In the Absence of Bombs investigates this silence. In a time when horror is livestreamed and apathy is institutionalized, contributors ask how such emotional paralysis is possible; how art can amplify the horrors of war; and how creative professionals can combat systemic neglect. It especially centers on the ongoing military invasions of Palestine and Ukraine, featuring contributions by poets such as Mahmoud Darwish and artists such as Gamlet Zinkivskyi. Through testimonies from areas of conflict past and present, this book composes a polyphonic response to a world that demands clarity but offers none.
When unspeakable violence happens before our eyes, and permeates our world to the point where we cannot escape, why do political, academic and cultural institutions retreat into silence? As part of Valiz’s Antennae series, In the Absence of Bombs investigates this silence. In a time when horror is livestreamed and apathy is institutionalized, contributors ask how such emotional paralysis is possible; how art can amplify the horrors of war; and how creative professionals can combat systemic neglect. It especially centers on the ongoing military invasions of Palestine and Ukraine, featuring contributions by poets such as Mahmoud Darwish and artists such as Gamlet Zinkivskyi. Through testimonies from areas of conflict past and present, this book composes a polyphonic response to a world that demands clarity but offers none.
320 pages, Paperback
Expected publication September 8, 2026
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Review of advance copy received from Publisher
“Many so called engaged authors, artists, and filmmakers suddenly find themselves silent when it comes to Palestine. Herein lies the paradox or progressive neo-liberalism: it allows artists, war photographers, and institutions to espouse progressive values when it is convenient - or profitable to do so - while avoiding any gesture that might truly unsettle the economic status quo. In this way, activism itself is commodified, its radical edge dulled, repackaged, and made palatable for consumption.”
“Excellence is flattened, evaluated by standards dictated by the market and the media circus. It’s a schizophrenic condition: you must forge your own personality - but all at once. Everyone for themselves, yet all moving in the same direction. Cultivate your authentic self - just make sure you do it in the same rhythm of the algorithm. This highly prized individualism turns out to be nothing more than advanced collectivism. It’s like the emperor’s new clothes: beneath the most ‘authentic’ outfit hides a naked body adorned with collectively valued brands. In short, individualism becomes herd mentality, but one that must suppress its dependence on the herd. The competitive individualist is continuously forced to drive their social being out of their own body. Just as the ‘genius artist’ or today’s creative entrepreneur must constantly deny that much of their creativity is drawn from others. This exorcism leads to loneliness and mental illness. The Self Society is, after all, a hysterical society. Hysteria arises, for example, when you feel replaceable and discover that you may not be as authentic as you thought. To be unique is hell in a hyper-competitive society where there is always someone ready to knock your unique self from its pedestal. It leads to fear, distrust, and xenophobia. In the frenzy of the hysterical rate race, Social Darwinism and theories of competitive genes easily merge with near-eugenic notions of white supremacy. This likely also further explains the difference in Western attitudes towards Ukraine and Palestine. How bitter must it feel to witness a sense of community in others? Even to evoke empathy for victims, most turn immediately to personal testimony. Collective suffering rarely makes it into the frame - we no longer know how to represent it. Could this failure to depict the collective be a symptom of our own uncertainty? A reflection of our unease, even our resentment, towards those who are still permitted to inhabit a communal spirit? Admittedly, I am speculating here, wandering into the deeper folds of our shared social unconscious.”
“Perhaps we can find a way out of the aesthetic deadlock through a triangulation of strategies: a poetics of exposure, a politics of disorientation, and an aesthetics of embodied trauma.”
A beat, a rave, a raid. A step into the streets.
“Excellence is flattened, evaluated by standards dictated by the market and the media circus. It’s a schizophrenic condition: you must forge your own personality - but all at once. Everyone for themselves, yet all moving in the same direction. Cultivate your authentic self - just make sure you do it in the same rhythm of the algorithm. This highly prized individualism turns out to be nothing more than advanced collectivism. It’s like the emperor’s new clothes: beneath the most ‘authentic’ outfit hides a naked body adorned with collectively valued brands. In short, individualism becomes herd mentality, but one that must suppress its dependence on the herd. The competitive individualist is continuously forced to drive their social being out of their own body. Just as the ‘genius artist’ or today’s creative entrepreneur must constantly deny that much of their creativity is drawn from others. This exorcism leads to loneliness and mental illness. The Self Society is, after all, a hysterical society. Hysteria arises, for example, when you feel replaceable and discover that you may not be as authentic as you thought. To be unique is hell in a hyper-competitive society where there is always someone ready to knock your unique self from its pedestal. It leads to fear, distrust, and xenophobia. In the frenzy of the hysterical rate race, Social Darwinism and theories of competitive genes easily merge with near-eugenic notions of white supremacy. This likely also further explains the difference in Western attitudes towards Ukraine and Palestine. How bitter must it feel to witness a sense of community in others? Even to evoke empathy for victims, most turn immediately to personal testimony. Collective suffering rarely makes it into the frame - we no longer know how to represent it. Could this failure to depict the collective be a symptom of our own uncertainty? A reflection of our unease, even our resentment, towards those who are still permitted to inhabit a communal spirit? Admittedly, I am speculating here, wandering into the deeper folds of our shared social unconscious.”
“Perhaps we can find a way out of the aesthetic deadlock through a triangulation of strategies: a poetics of exposure, a politics of disorientation, and an aesthetics of embodied trauma.”
A beat, a rave, a raid. A step into the streets.
Displaying 1 of 1 review