Annet Gelink Gallery organises a screening of Yael Bartana's film Two Minutes to Midnight (2021), followed by a talk with the artist and two experts on military culture and leadership, moderated by Annette van Soest. The event came about in collaboration with De Balie, where it will take place.
Yael Bartana's film Two Minutes to Midnight was initially released as a theatrical performance and then compiled using the filmed material from three of these performances. The film depicts a (female) government of an imaginary nation discussing unilateral disarmament. While the government's starting point is peace and disarmament, a hostile country expands its nuclear stockpiles. Joining the government, which is made up of actors, is a group of actual specialists, including defense advisers, soldiers, lawyers, peace activists, humanitarians and politicians. The work is like an opposite version of Stanley Kubrick's so-called War Room from Dr. Strangelove (1964). In Bartana's Peace Room, the women are in discussion and the food is served by men with naked upper bodies. As the women exchange ideas about war, security and inequality, tensions escalate with the enemy nation. The work is part of Bartana's series tellingly titled What if Women Ruled the World?
At a time when international crises go hand in hand with dominant male leaders, a nuclear arms race is still part of (geo)political disputes, and women are coming out for the violence inflicted on them by (authoritarian) men, Yael presents a speculative work in which women rule the world and interdisciplinary cooperation and disarmament are central.
January 21, 2023 - January 21, 2023
