Rooseum
NORMALIZATION
18.3-28.5 2006
Exhibition opening on Saturday 18 March
6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Rooseum
Gasverksgatan 22
Box 4097, SE-203 12 Malmö
Phone: +46 (0)40-121716
Fax: +46 (0)40-304561
http://www.rooseum.se
Kristina Ask, Johanna Billing, Michael Blum, Pavel Braila, Goran Devic, Nermin
Durakovic, Luke Fowler, IRWIN, Sejla Kameric, Andreja Kuluncic, Chad McCail, Lisa Nyberg,
Tanja Ostojic, Dan Perjovschi, Renata Poljak, Kirstine Roepstorff, Pernille Skov
Sĝren Holm Hvilsby, Silke Wagner, Jasmila Zbanic, Ahmet Ögüt, Erkan Özgen
Sener Özmen
By examining processes of normalization in various political, social and cultural
contexts, the exhibition focusses on how people and societies are “Normalized”.
Twenty-one international artists present works reflecting on the impact normalization has
on how we organize our societies and on how we relate to each other.
The term normalization connotes concepts such as standardization, conformity, and control.
It is of immediate interest in connection with for instance the discussion of the
enlargement of the EU and of the political and economic development in the Balkan States.
However, normalization can also be seen as a mechanism of discipline, deeply ingrained in
the social structures of the Nordic countries, and a common condition governing how we as
individuals are produced by the society we are part of.
What are the consequences of the social standardization promoted in connection with the
enlargement of the EU, and what are the effects of the EU as a normative system? Is
normalization about eliminating difference and, in that case, what are the cultural and
social implications of this? How do normalization processes work in relation to gender,
ethnicity, and social hierarchies, and how do they affect human relations?
Informing the exhibition is a wish to nuance our conception of what normalization means
and to challenge the positive function the term often has in political discourses and
public debates. Focussing on diverse issues, the works deal with the implementation, the
practice and the consequences of normalization both as a political tool and as a social
disciplinary phenomenon.
With this presentation of both thought-provoking and humorous reflections on the subject,
it is hoped that Normalization will point to other ways of understanding the
implications of one of the governing control mechanisms in our time.
The exhibition project Normalization was initially developed in dialogue with the
curator group WHW in Zagreb and Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center in Istanbul
resulting in different exhibitions in each location in 2004 and 2005.
CRITICAL STUDIES 2005?2006
In connection with Normalization, Critical Studies present the project Priority
List on Rooseum´s bill-board at Gasverksgatan. The project consists of a fragment
from a so-called priority list ? a government directive as to the allocation of resources
to different groups in society in case of a crisis. A priority list is based on
suppositions of who is the most useful for the continued functioning of the rest of
society. The project Priority List casts light on this hierarchy, focussing on
those who are at the bottom of the ladder.
Critical Studies 2005?2006: Kyongfa Che, Alfredo Cramerotti, Övül Durmusoglu, Minna
Henriksson, Christian Hillesĝ, Jee-Eun Kim, Christian Schult.
Tanja Ostojic:
In
the frame of the Normalization exhibit in Rooseum, I am showing as premier an
instalation in 3 parts that deals with the issue of “the Roma question” in the
EU.
part one- video installation:
"Naked life", 24 min
video-performance, 2005 by Tanja Ostojic:
The "Naked life",
video-performance is based on the information from the Written Comments of the
European Roma Rights Center Concerning Germany For Consideration by the United Nations
Human Rights Committee at its 80th Session, March 16, 2003-April 3, 2004.
I´m standing in an empty room and reading the
fates of different Roma individuals taken from the reports' segment on deportations. Each
following description seems more severe then the previous one and adds to my sadness and
disturbance. After every single case I am undressing an item. At some points I have
difficulties to read because of crying...
part two- text and photo installation: “The Roma Question” ,
from “Integration Project Archive” 2002-2006
Compiling an “Integration Project Archive” proved a very helpful device for my
continuing work and stands in an important relation to the ongoing research. Whenever the
archive is exhibited it is openly accessible to whoever is interested. This archive
setting focuses on Roma history, important human right contemporary issues as well as
perspectives in Europe and the EU (exh. Romani Holocaust, sterilisations in Sweden,
deportations, Slovakia, Kosovo, Germany, ).
part three - audio installation: “Dinner
Disscusion, Berlin”, HKW, Berlin June 2003.
From the “Integration Project – Dinner Disscusions” 2002-2005: Kunstverein
NRWF, Düsseldorf, 2003; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin 2003; Tanz Quartier, Vienna
2004; Kannonhalen, Copenhagen 2004.
My “Integration Dinner” in Haus der Kulturen der Welt, in Jun 2003 was conceived
around the visit that I made to the deportation jail Grünaw-Köpenick. In the frame of
the dinner setting we discused together with visitors and diverce guestes about
restrictive laws, deportation, as well as about media coverige and relation of arts and
theory to “reality”.
One of the most problematic issues in the EU is the fortressification inforced by the body
of restrictive asylum laws. EU State governments do everything to give as few asylums as
possible. People are being illegalized, deported and removed, pushed over EU borders to
fend for themselves.
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http://artefact.mi2.hr/_a01/lang_en/art_ostojic_en.htm
http://www.xpona.net/OstojicVideos
http://www.parakanal.com/rych/sanspapiers/
http://www.parakanal.com/bridge/
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