Two-channel audiovisual installation, 45′, loop
English spoken
2026
In Don’t Take It Personally: We’re at War, the two channels trace the perpetuation: close looking becomes a forensic practice, while rhythm, breath, and speech become acts of resistance.
Don’t Take It Personally: We’re at War (2026) is a two-channel installation commissioned by the 18th Lyon Biennale, curated by Catherine Nichols. Revisiting Jelena Jureša’s 2025 film and film installation Don’t Take It Personally, the work deconstructs and recomposes the original film concert into a new two-channel composition.
“Two movements trace the perpetuation in Don’t Take It Personally: We’re at War. The first turns to European museum collections, examining Dutch Golden Age painting (17th century), where images of prosperity become inseparable from the histories of trade, extraction, and colonial violence that cultural institutions have helped sustain. Here, close looking becomes a forensic practice, revisiting familiar images in search of what they conceal. The second movement brings together Dutch-Indonesian tap dancer Marije Nie with Croatian musicians Alen and Nenad Sinkaus in a filmed performance where rhythm, breath, and speech become acts of resistance. Drawing on the writings of Dubravka Ugrešić, whose opposition to nationalist violence forced her into exile during the Yugoslav Wars, Jureša’s work examines how violence circulates through language, memory, and the institutions that preserve history.”
— Catherine Nichols
