NORMALISATION

Normalisation

18.3 – 28.5 2006
The Exhibition Hall, Ground Level, the Micro Cinema
Exhibition opening and artist talk on Saturday 18 March from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö

Kristina Ask
Johanna Billing
Michael Blum
Pavel Braila
Goran Devic
Nermin Durakovic
Luke Fowler
IRWIN
Šejla Kameric
Andreja Kuluncic
Chad McCail
Lisa Nyberg
Tanja Ostojic
Dan Perjovschi
Renata Poljak
Kirstine Roepstorff
Pernille Skov & Søren Holm Hvilsby
Silke Wagner
Jasmila Žbanic
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.

These different levels of normalization give rise to questions such as: 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.

Film screenings
The exhibition includes a program of five films, which will be screened in the Micro Cinema for two weeks each during the exhibition period:

18.3 – 31.3 Jasmila Zbanic
1.4 – 14.4 Goran Devic
15.4 – 28.4 Pavel Braila
29.4 – 12.5 Renata Poljak
13.5 – 28.5 Michael Blum

Events
Rooseum also arranges a series of artist talks, film screenings and lectures relating to the exhibition. Events and further information will be advertised.

http://www.rooseum.se/content/e7/e17/index_en.html