Exhibition
Overt: Militarization as Ideology

Wed, 10/28/2020 -
Sat, 11/21/2020
Art Museum at the University of Toronto

Supported by the Goethe-Institut Toronto​

With the start of the war on terror and the proliferation of militarized technologies, many artists developed new aesthetic approaches to explore military sites and industries. Overt: Militarization as Ideology focuses on the ways in which artists have engaged aesthetically with the concept and condition of militarization. Through video, film, drawings, and installation, the exhibition highlights the human-technological relationships that have been amplified due to the ever-intensifying intrusion of military research in everyday life.

The artists included in Overt urge us to think of militarization beyond military deployment, war, and conscription and underline the urgency to examine its ideological impact on culture and society. They interpret, theorize, and represent militarization from their perception of or direct experience with military technologies, industries, and systems. This exhibition asks: What becomes visible or remains invisible when it comes to representing militarized technologies? Is the relationship between military and civil worlds one of discontinuity or deep entanglement? Are military technologies oppressive or can they be emancipatory? Interweaving two worlds—the Middle East and the West—this University of Toronto curatorial graduation exhibition urges its visitors to think of militarization as an ideology shaping our lives in multiple parts of the world.

One of the works in the exhibition is Harun Farocki's documentary "War At A Distance" (2003, 56 mins). German artist Farocki (1944 – 2014) is known for his explorations of the ramifications of war, industry and technology and their impacts on society. Spanning two different locations and histories, Farocki interweaves the relations between US military facilities and European industrial factories. The historical narrative elucidates not only the connections between military and industrial production but also the links between destruction and creation with the increased distance from human agency.


Artists: Harun Farocki, Hajra Waheed, Hiwa K, James Bridle, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Lamis Haggag.

Curated by: Fatma Hendawy Yehia


Fatma Hendawy Yehia is an independent curator, living between Alexandria, Egypt, and Toronto, Canada. She is finishing her MFA in curatorial studies at the University of Toronto.  She has participated in several curatorial workshops and programs such as the ISCP at the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo, Egypt, Melopee workshop for cultural producers in Chateau-Thierry, France, MTS program organized by UCL and the British Council and Tate Intensive at Tate Modern in London, UK.
Fatma has collaborated with and curated projects for the Swiss Embassy in Egypt, the British Council in Cairo, the Spanish Embassy cultural section, Goethe-Institute Egypt and ProHelvetia in Cairo and Zurich, and is one of the programmers of the Toronto Arab Film Festival's Mokhtabar section.


Part of the Goethe-Institut focus on #ImagesMatter