Collective Trauma & the Art of Exposure

The Pocket Project envisions creating an active channel of support for visual artists whose work bears a deep connection to the way in which collective trauma affects visible and hidden layers of culture and society throughout the generations and throughout the world. 

This vision recognizes the ability of art to create change in the collective consciousness regarding meaningful events of various times and scales, thus contributing to the exposure, recognition, acknowledgement and possible integration of such events. In many cases, traumatic experiences are silenced, denied and excluded from the public narrative, while having a dominant and crucial effect in creating ongoing fragmentation in day-to-day life and culture. 

Through the work of art, a complete data system related to a historic event can be exposed to a wide audience, tracing back to the repressed event and flooding it to the front of the stage. In this way, through the creative act, emotional recognition can take place and create a connection to the hidden and invisible essence of traumatic events which have been pushed into becoming an absent presence in our society. Thus, an increase in awareness and potential for taking broader responsibility on the subject is created in the audience.