Syndrome of the Present is a research-based art project. It aspires to establish a collaborative, transdisciplinary platform, shared between artists and experts from diverse geographies and disciplines. A platform, which enables collective thinking to analyse the Present’s syndrome and the present as syndrome.

Introduction/Background

The starting moment of the syndrome of the present is the 17th century in Central Europe, when the cornerstones of present conflicts were laid. The 17th century was the period during which the religious reformation, the sovereign state, democracy, citizenship, and human rights were constituted in response to decades of religious wars. This century was marked by outbursts of messianism, scientific development, and economic and cultural progress, as signs of the expectation that the world would change for the better. Today, it seems that we are heading backwards and progressing towards the state of an internal war; the sovereign state is under attack, democracy is at risk, citizenship is replaced by consumerism, and human rights are fully disrespected.

Two 17th-century protagonists, the ‘Messiah’ Sabbatai Zevi and the Philosopher Baruch Spinoza, constitute a ‘time tunnel’ in the project that establishes links between past and present, eschatology and politics, and creates a perspective for insights into contemporary events. Both protagonists offer a revolutionary worldview and both were ahead of their time in their attempts to redefine the relations between God, man and society (state).

The 17th century has been formative for our contemporary reality in many ways: Europe’s religious wars ended with the Peace Treaty of Westphalia, which exiled religion from the supreme power. Secular sovereignty inverted the monarchical paradigm: the people appropriated the king’s power, turning the sources of political authority upside-down. Tolerance “as a government-sanctioned practice” in Europe’s Christian countries was institutionalized at this time. The sovereign ruler and the (national) territorial state became the “administrators of tolerance” in the early modern era, and promised to secure peace within their states.

Westphalian secularization meant the beginning of Europe’s institutionalization of religious tolerance and freedom. However, it also sowed the seeds for the modern grand myth of nationalism and its authoritarian suppression of heterodox movements and accounts. International law proved to be a means for the protection of sovereignty as much as a neutralized tool for the systemic oppression of the designated Other. Hence, the myth of Westphalian peace is now a challenge to overcome.

The present crisis also presents a moment of possibilities: the destruction that leads us to face the crises also opens doors to re-imagine a future where equality, dignity, wealth, justice, mobility, and education are equally shared among each one of us. In order to accomplish this, we have to know how to look back, to see what was imagined for us. To the website

Syndrome of the Present is made possible by: