| Summary: | In <em>Don't Look Away</em> Brianne Cohen considers the role ofcontemporary art in developing a public commitment to endstructural violence in Europe. Cohen focuses on art activism of theearly twenty-first century that confronts the slow violenceperpetuated against precarious peoples. Exploring the work ofGerman filmmaker Harun Farocki, Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn, andthe art collective Henry VIII's Wives, Cohen argues that theirrecursive art practices offer a more sustained counter to theviolence undergirding the public sphere than do artworks premisedon immediate rupture. Their art reflects on a variety offlashpoints of violence and vulnerability in Europe, from thelegacy of the Holocaust to Islamophobia and rising anti-immigrantsentiment. Because this violence has often cultivated fear-basedpublics, Cohen contends that art must foster ethical and civilrelations between strangers across physical and virtual borders. Incontrast to art-critical practices that privilege direct action incontemporary art activism, Cohen advocates for the imaginative,messier, often more elusive potential of art to change mindsets andfoster a nonviolent social imaginary.
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