TOUGH LOVE, curator: Anna Smolar

What do you see and feel when you say the words “tough love” out loud?
What does this first association say about you, your history and memory?
What does it tell you about us, the people standing on the stage, sitting in the audience?
Can we search together for a definition of tough love?
In what direction will this definition push us?

Since we need new images, new concepts and new stories in understanding the present, how about taking a vocabulary from one field and applying it to other areas of reality? Or perhaps we could use strange buzzwords in examining and deconstructing the world around us?

The Oxford Dictionary defines tough love as “looking out for the welfare of a person, especially an addict, child or criminal, by imposing certain restrictions on them or requiring them to take responsibility for their actions.” The concept of tough love, indeed, used in psychology most often in the context of addiction and codependency, can become a key to the study of dependency more broadly.

Tough love as a test?
A social principle? Learning about oneself in relation to the world? As an exploration of closeness, an exploration of distance? As looking anew at one’s body, looking at relationships, at home, at work, on the street.