’HISTORY CLASS’, MARGARET INNERHOFER, Video Installation

 BACK TO SCHOOL’ Show, Ethan Cohen Gallery, KuBe Art Center, Beacon, New York, November 3, 2023 

 STATEMENT:

 In my installation, 'BACK TO SCHOOL,' exhibited at the Ethan Cohen Gallery, I've chosen to convert my designated gallery space into a fictitious history classroom, employing video projection to provoke contemplative questions and concepts.

This immersive experience delves into a profound philosophical question: do history classes, with their poignant narratives of human self-destruction, truly nurture the growing minds of our youth?

I therefore present a provocative and radical proposition: should history class be removed from the sacred realm of the scholastic curriculum?

Does the continual recollection of past wrongs contribute to the perpetuation of cycles of revenge in the context of war?

Furthermore, my message and intent seek to challenge the very essence of the term 'Homo sapiens,' offering an equally radical and thought-provoking perspective. Within this conceptual framework, I advocate for the complete inversion of nomenclature, suggesting that the 'SAPIENS' descriptor should rightly belong to the animal kingdom, while humans are rebranded as 'Homo INSANIS' (Latin for 'mad').

This proposition deconstructs the traditional bastions of human wisdom and poignantly underscores the profound reverberations of human actions on our delicate planet.

In summary, 'HISTORY CLASS’ stands as a harbinger of transformative reevaluation, calling on society to recalibrate its collective understanding of history and the reverence associated with its study, emphasizing the Madness associated with it rather than its Glorification.