Panel discussion: Is There Such a Thing as a Neutral Image?

Panel discussion “Is There Such a Thing as a Neutral Image?”, organized by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Center for Advanced Studies of the University of Rijeka, will take place on February 12, 2026, at the MMSU, starting at 5:00 PM. The discussion will feature contributors to the edited volume Against the Neutral Image, published on the occasion of the exhibition Choreographies of Violence, artist Jelena Jureša, and publication designer Ana Labudović.

The publication Against the Neutral Image (University of Rijeka) is not conceived as a conventional exhibition catalogue. Departing from the film works of Jelena Jureša, it opens up a space of encounter between artistic, curatorial, and theoretical practices, and develops questions about how violence is made visible or invisible, how it is framed, aestheticized, normalized, or suppressed. Through its texts, the book insists on the thesis that the neutrality of the image is never merely a style of representation, but is often a technique of power: an arrangement of distance, attention, and responsibility.

The panel discussion continues the logic of the publication itself as a “space of encounter,” extending its questions through dialogue and exchange, rather than treating the book or the exhibition as a closed entity. The discussion will address the relationship between image and institution, aesthetics and ethics, as well as the role of exhibitionary and discursive frameworks in shaping the ways we look at, understand, and (fail to) respond to violence.

Project partners:
MMSU Rijeka, Center for Advanced Studies of the University of Rijeka, KASK & Conservatorium / HOGENT Arts Research Fund