Victims’ Symptom, commissioned by LabforCulture and curated by Ana Peraica (Croatia/The Netherlands), is live at http://victims.labforculture.org. The project explores the concept and image of ‘the victim’ as it is used in contemporary society.

Is the cultural production of victims preventing us from seeing the actual victims? Why does the mass media prefer to talk in terms of numbers? Are we losing our capacity for empathy? These are just some of the questions explored in the Victims’ Symptom project through critical texts, commissioned artworks, interviews and reflections by the curator and a number of renowned theorists and artists.

The new Victims’ Symptom online space features texts by: Sezgin Boynik (Kosovo), Adila Laidi-Hanieh (Palestine), Geert Lovink (The Netherlands) and Stevan Vukovic (Serbia). Victims’ Symptom also presents a series of online artworks specifically commissioned for this project by: Mauricio Arango (Colombia/USA), Alejandro Duque (Colombia/Switzerland), Andreja Kuluncic (Croatia), Marko Peljhan (Slovenia) and Martha Rosler (USA). The texts and artworks provide the framework for an open online debate from 17 - 23 May 2008 in which the public is invited to participate alongside the Victims’ Symptom artists and theorists.

Victims’ Symptom was commissioned in the summer of 2007 to mark LabforCulture’s first anniversary. Katherine Watson (Canada/Finland), Director of LabforCulture said, “it is an online experiment that set out to bring critical thinkers, artists and a wider public together and to encourage reflection, open dialogue and debate on a compelling global issue.”