WAR
A conscientious objector, Tom Bogaert explores how the logic of war has seeped into everyday life. In 2023, he was an artist in residence at Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz, Austria, supported by the Flemish Ministry of Culture (Belgium).
Bogaert’s residency project at the Futurelab aims to explore our relationship with the order of things that we have been taught and sold through the lens of multilateral propaganda in the context of international conflict.
Objection (2023)Installation view at undisclosed location in Belgium.
Objection collage (2023)250 x 200 cm.
At the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria.
The artist seeks to bend technology and engages with weaponry within a discourse of refusal, viewing it both as an act of protest and a generative process of renewal. During his time at the Ars Electronica Futurelab, he hacked weapons, strategies, industries, and geopolitics – and called it art.
IDEX (2023)Russian Helicopters at the Abu Dhabi Arms Fair.
Field research included a visit to the arms fair IDEX in Abu Dhabi where Bogaert was struck by the banality of the event. Drawing inspiration from the Stockholm Peace Institute’s Top 100 arms producing companies list, he invested a portion of his grant money in acquiring shares in a few of these companies.
Tom Bogaert bought his first shares on 2 May 2023 at the height of the war in Ukraine. Following that, his portfolio slowly lost value. However, the Monday after the outbreak of the Hamas - Israel war on 7 October 2023, his equity portfolio rose more than 10% in one day and has continued to rise ever since.
The Hamas Effect (2023 - 2024)
Value on 27 March 2024.
The Hamas Effect (2023 - 2026)
Value on 19 January 2026.
Objection (2023)Installation view at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria.