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STATES OF VIOLENCE was an unprecedented collaboration with WikiLeaks which culminated in a presentation of works by more than 15 artists, collectives, and investigative journalists including, Ai Weiwei, Forensic Architecture, Dread Scott and The Vivienne Foundation. It was curated by and presented at a/political in March - April, 2023. The presentation was a collective gesture which unveiled and opposed techniques of government oppression, from war and torture to police brutality and surveillance. The world’s most outspoken individuals turned the spotlight on global power structures, many who have been subject to censorship, prosecution, and even imprisonment and house arrests themselves. Their work was presented alongside “SECRET NOFORN” (2022), a body of work by the Institute for Dissent & Datalove, comprising the highest classification of cables from the 2010 WikiLeaks Cablegate publication of U.S. diplomatic cables. It was the largest-ever physical publication of top secret government cables, never before available in the UK in hardcopy. WikiLeaks changed the course of history, publishing over 10 million documents of censored or otherwise restricted official materials since its launch in 2006. It pioneered a revolutionary methodology, which allowed whistleblowers to disclose sensitive documents while maintaining anonymity. As a direct result, the founder Julian Assange remains in Belmarsh Prison facing extradition to America where he could receive 175 years in prison under the Espionage Act. STATES OF VIOLENCE included works by Cassils, Declassified, Democracia, Democracia, Edmund Clark, Forensic Architecture in collaboration with Laura Poitras, Brian Eno, and Edward Snowden, Institute for Dissent and Datalove, Regina José Galindo, Kendell Geers, Peter Kennard, kennardphillipps, Pak, Sarah M. Lee, Andrei Molodkin, Dread Scott, Santiago Sierra, Vivienne Westwood, Ai Weiwei. Follow us on Instagram | Subscribe to our newsletter | Subscribe to our channel | #julianassange #wikileaks #contemporaryart #statesofviolence #viviennewestwood #aiweiwei
