Killer Audience

I keep coming back to the question of what it means to be a spectator today. For the first time in history, we can witness wars almost in real time. Never before have we known so much. And yet, I find, this knowledge changes remarkably little. And rarely has visibility led to so little consequence. Killer Audience stems from the question of whether the position of an innocent audience even exists, addressing the complicity of watching. Algorithms and the permanent availability of images/videos turn even extreme violence into everyday content. I only need to swipe once to go from a war zone livestream to a cat video. Absurd. Wars are not only fought on the battlefield. They are decided in parliaments, produced in factories, narrated by the media, and eventually accepted as part of everyday life. Militarization begins where violence appears inevitable and dissent falls silent. Military violence needs more than armies and weapons. It needs an audience that learns to tolerate it. That is why I am not just concerned with militarization itself, but in the social conditions that make it possible. What kind of society produces people who consider themselves uninvolved? The word Audience disappears layer by layer beneath the surface. As the audience fades away, Killer becomes increasingly visible. The reflective surface at the bottom of the painting destroys the certainty of distance. It reflects the viewer and physically draws them into the work. Watching becomes complicity. Maybe the audience does not simply exist by chance but serves a function.