Expropriation of land, exploitation of the labour force, whose reproduction was to be ensured, accompanied the introduction and development of capitalism. In order to enforce the system, new weapons of control were needed. When it comes to witches, therefore, it is always also about the question of power and domination, it is about stigmatization, oppression and systematic violence. And with those words alone, the issue is catapulted into the present.
EZEKIEL'S DREAM
The Catholic Church played an exceedingly inglorious, because supporting, role in the persecution of witches. In the installation "Ezekiel dreams beyond repair", the Iranian-born artist Neda Saeedi deals with Ezekiel's Old Testament vision of salvation. She transfers the throne of which Ezekiel dreams to the present day. Saeedi is no longer the divine throne that symbolizes monotheism. The blue chair is one from the EU Parliament in Strasbourg.
The symbol of political power is carried by four plant replicas. Long extinct in the wild, these plants now live only at the hands of humans. That is why they no longer take root, but are stuck in the brush heads of high-pressure surface cleaners. The gloomy atmosphere surrounding this installation is intensified by a green sun in the background. On closer inspection, it turns out to be a reflection. Except for a strip of green, it disappears into a black hole.
