Tales of Empathy
Have you ever observed an emotional state in someone else that stimulated the same emotion in you? When you describe an experience that you have had, are you simply describing facts or are you also describing the emotions that you felt? What do you feel when you see a person who is in trouble?
These are the kind of questions that feature in psychology tests to measure empathy, which, during the last decade, gradually came to the fore as a notion that made it possible to view feeling as knowledge, functioning as a window onto the experiences of others. Current research into empathy in the social sciences, feminism and art centres on two “turns” – the reflexive turn and the affective turn. The reflexive turn led to the systematic and rigorous disclosure by researchers of their methodology and their own subjective viewpoints as the instruments of data generation. By extension, the affective turn in feminist theory and the social sciences reflected a body’s capacity to affect and be affected.
“Tales of Empathy” reveals reflexive artistic research carried out by four artists and their roles as researchers and activists. By using a conversational style that combines narrations of lived experience with first-person testimonies, and by exploring non-verbal techniques to move someone or be moved, they enable viewers to not only understand, but also feel the material and cultural context. Nika Autor draws on her personal experience when recounting events linked to the place that she came from in order to subvert official history. Natascha Sadr Haghighian explores empathy as the ability to produce and perceive resemblances. Starting out from the oral history of her ancestors and their culture, Kapwani Kiwanga highlights the need for an embodiment of memory and testimonies. Eszter Salamon appropriates the biography of her namesake through a performative work that is activated by contact with the public.