How Can They Be So Sure of Themselves? is an arrangement of re-purposed wooden chairs that have been etched and engraved with fragments of text. The quotes are from the German writer Carolin Emcke‘s book-length essay Against Hate, which counters the partisanship of extreme political ideologies with a call for fluidity, pluralism, and nuance. The integration of selected phrases upon the chairs, and their staging within the Welcome-Center, infers a pedagogical mission, an instructive immersion in a new system of learning.

Selection of slogans used:

YOU CAN ONLY CONFRONT HATRED THROUGH CLOSE OBSERVATION, RELENTLESSLY MAKING DISTINCTIONS, AND DOUBTING YOURSELF.

Violence does not simply exist. Paths are laid out for it.

Hatred does not break out suddenly it is bred.

 

The installation was first time exhibited at Innsbruck International Biennial of Art.

Curated by Tereza Kotyk, Chris Clarke.