The Arcade, Kings College London, The Strand
7 February to 3 March 2023
Curated by Vivienne Jabri and Cécile Bourne-Farrell
The Score (You and I Both Know), explores the impact of war on populations living in the aftermath of conflict.
The exhibition forms part of Conflict and Injury, a research project from King’s College London Department of War Studies investigating how war inflicts injuries on individuals, communities and their lived environments.
Silva draws on several years of research and practice in Bosnia and Herzegovina to present this new series of works exploring the consequences of the Bosnian War on bodies, landscapes and memory, as well as the remarkable resilience and solidarity of those affected.
Through an installation of photographs and sound The Score (You and I Both Know) transports viewers to the siege of Sarajevo and the embodied, material and auditory cartography of violence. The deeply resonant exhibition is testimony to injury and resistance in the face of the deliberate targeting of civilian populations in time of war, capturing the scenes and sounds of lived experience during conflict and its aftermath.
Silva’s primary focus is a row of linden trees along the River Miljacka that mark Sarajevo’s former frontline; the only trees that remained in the city after the siege as their location was too dangerous for anyone to risk felling them. As well as being witnesses to the conflict, these trees were also active participants, forming a living shield to sniper fire. Today, their role is immortalised in their trunks and branches which bear the scars of the war. The works are complemented by a haunting voice singing a former Yugoslavian partisan song celebrating the forest as a place of safety.
Read an interview with the artist and curator Cécile Bourne-Farrell here.
Corinne Silva, Untitled I, The Score (You and I Both Know), 2023