Societal formation is a process that is at times painful and at others joyful. It’s a progression that seems to eternally revolve around a set of questions, situations, and contexts that remain persistent, while only the cast of the play changes.

As our societies are continuously pushed and pulled by a whirlwind of these forces, pressures, debates, and movements, we are faced with the challenges that come with continuous (re)negotiation. There are no stable positions we can take; a myriad of trajectories and momentums create a restless world. At once bound by tradition, yet in pursuit of progress, our society tasks us with the Sisyphean chore of moving ahead while searching for stable positions and meanings. These are the persisting realities we live in.

Continuous research and experimentation as well as the processual are the guiding principles of the artists in this exhibition, as they grapple with our ever-changing realities that insist on perpetually dragging up persistent issues, ranging from hierarchies, power struggles, and structural change, to conservatism and dogmatic resistance to change. Responding to uncertainty and flux, the artists of Persisting Realities hypothesise, untangle, and imagine ways of persevering. How might we cultivate joy? How do we find agency, and how do we locate or build common ground?

As CTM turns 20, the 2019 exhibition brings together five distinguished curators, all long-term supporters of the festival, to collectively consider what it means to continue, thrive, persevere, and endure. Together with CTM, Martin Craciun [UY], Natalia Fuchs [RU], Nicole Gingras [CA], Eric Mattson [CA], and Antje Weitzel [DE] have conceived multiple entry points into CTM 2019’s Persistence theme.