Three Questions for the Wheels of History

Addam Yekutieli, also known by his former street art pseudonym Know Hope, has for years been developing an artistic practice that explicitly engages with power dynamics, violence and political responsibility. ‘Questions for the Wheel of History’ features three prints depicting enlarged scars on a leg, foot and chest – injuries sustained by people from Gaza, rendered in a reddish-brown colour reminiscent of iodine. At the Völklinger Hütte, these images encounter a historically charged industrial setting that is inextricably linked to the production of war material. From here, Yekutieli draws a direct line to the present day and highlights the interconnections between European history and current military conflicts. Who bears responsibility? Where does complicity begin? And which narratives serve to legitimise violence? The work insists that history should not be viewed as a closed chapter, but as an ongoing process in which power relations are reproduced. Yekutieli thus calls for an uncomfortable confrontation – not only with the past, but with the political reality of the present.