Sad Countenances / Smętne oblicza

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The video installation and photographs which are part of the exhibition do not create a linear narrative, but rather offer dispersed episodes which—similar to those in Cervantes’ novel—are fragmented, incoherent and multi-layered. Time no longer matters, and a linear story is replaced by the characters’ repetitive, and often pointless actions. The visitors are encouraged to construct their own, new stories from the elements of the installation, discovering the deep connections between the past and the present, because—as the artist quotes after Françoise Davoine—“the past is today”.

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One of the exhibition’s key themes is the impossibility of talking about trauma. In many episodes, such as Narrative Stuttering and Aimless Altruism, the characters try to tell their stories, but are locked in traumatic experiences. Don Quijote becomes a figure of not only insanity, but also powerlessness in the face of the modern world. He tries to fix the evil around him, but his actions often fail—not because he lacks will, but because the world he lives in is too complicated to understand his noble intentions.

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For Mieke Bal, art becomes a research tool, and “thinking with paintings” lets us diagnose today’s problems (mass migration, violence, the destruction of our planet) and forces us to think about them and look for solutions.

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The exhibition uses the idea of empathy as a way to influence viewers confronted with trauma and violence. Don Quijote, the classic “mad knight,” is transformed into a “sad knight,” whose actions become an expression of frustration and powerlessness against the suffering of others. Ball emphasises the fact that although it might seem pointless, the act of helping others, empathy remain a key tool in the fight against dehumanisation.