Before starting your journey, you must first understand it. Welcome to CONFRONTATION, an online art exhibition taking you through the stages of a conflict - the anticipation to a confrontation and the cooldown after. This exhibition is designed around the different stages of a conflict - the latent stage, the build-up, the confrontation itself, the aftermath, and finally, the resolution. CONFRONTATION is meant to question you, and quite literally challenge the fights you are willing to pick and the ones you choose to ignore - and whether that is a good thing or not. Ultimately, you choose what you wish to take away from CONFRONTATION. It’s up to you to decide - but for now, sit back and enjoy the journey. It might be the time to deepen your definition of a confrontation.

 

Latent: this is the stage before anyone knows the conflict is even there. There’s no conflict yet - but the factors that could become reasons to fight are there. Something's not quite right, but nothing seems to be unlawful or out of place. Are you happy with where you are? Is there anything that needs to be changed?

 

Build-up: this is when you realise something is wrong. There is an awareness that you are facing somebody on the opposing side, and maybe something will come out of it, maybe nothing will. However, it is likely that it is only going to get worse. Are you going to do anything about it?

 

Confrontation: At this stage, you act on your awareness that you are on different sides. This is when things come to blow, when feelings spill over and a mess is made. At this point, you will continue pushing for your side, provoking a reaction and response from the other party. This shows in different ways - aggression, apathy, sabotage, withdrawal, and a perfect obedience to rules (Singh, 2012). Politics, the environment, personal battles - we are in a time of contrast and conflict. Are we ready for what is to come after that?

 

Aftermath: this is the stage where the dust has settled and fights have been picked. Maybe you won your battle, maybe you did not. Nevertheless, it is time to pick yourself back up. However - were you aware of your surroundings? The pieces of your collateral damage? But ultimately, the question is - was it worth it?

 

Resolution: This is when we truly know who won the round. This is the stage at which you have finally picked yourself back up, when you have fixed things enough that those around you could almost forget that there was a disagreement to begin with. Before you finish your healing process and forget how much damage you both took and caused, ask yourself - would you do it again?