On the 10th of November during the finissage of the exhibition Dialogues at Manifesta, Amsterdam, a roundtable talk takes place. The book Compassion. A Paradox in Art and Society is the central point of the evening. A lot of interesting viewpoints concerning Flag of Compassion and the relationship between art and ethics are shared.

The intimate setting at Manifesta triggered a focused and in-depth conversation between Nick Aikens, curator at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Binna Choi, curator and the director of Casco, Utrecht; Christa-Maria Lerm-Hayes, Professor and Chair of Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of Amsterdam; moderator Bojana Panevska, artist, researcher, writer, and currently she facilitates workshops for DutchCulture and TransArtists.

Amsterdam, 10 November 2017, 18:00-20:00
Hosted by: Manifesta Foundation Office and Lumen Travo Gallery
Initiator: Rini Hurkmans
Invited guests:
Christa-Maria Lerm-Hayes, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of Amsterdam
Nick Aikens, curator at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
Binna Choi, curator and director of Casco, Utrecht
Moderator: Bojana Panevska, artist, researcher and writer, currently she facilitates workshops for DutchCulture and TransArtists

Short impression by Rosa Mulder

During the finissage of the exhibition Dialogues at Manifesta, curated by Lumen Travo Gallery, the round table talk on art, ethics, and Flag of Compassion touched upon a lot of side topics. The round table talk kicks off with the question: What is the ethics of the artwork Flag of Compassion? Ethics is about good and bad, but who is good and who is bad, and whose ethics concern Flag of compassion?

Nick Aikens states that art and ethics are different from art and compassion because compassion is able to bridge the good and bad. Flag of Compassion does not embody one of the two sides. This is exactly what complicates it for Binna Choi, who says to suffer to be uncompassionate. She disagrees with showing compassion to the right wing. However, Flag of Compassion has no rules, meaning that everyone can buy and use the Flag. In this way, the artwork Flag of Compassion raises questions, makes you think, and opens up a dialogue. Flag of Compassion wants to make visible all differences. It advocates diversity. Flags usually name and identify, while art is an exercise in investigating. This paradox evokes provocation because these ethics go beyond good or bad. Christa-Maria Lerm-Hayes comments on this statement by saying that Hannah Arendt explains evil as distancing oneself from responsibility. In that sense, Binna wonders how to be open to fascism, since fascism should not expand. Rini Hurkmans, the initiator of Flag of Compassion, clarifies that the Flag is all about opening dialogues for a better understanding of the other and that it is a tool to start seeing the world less black and white, less in terms of good and bad. The Flag is an instrument to nuance judgements by bringing people with different opinions together in a shared space.

Moderator Bojana Panevska finishes with the question: is it possible to talk about universal compassion? That leaves the discussion open, together with a lot of other unanswered questions.