NORMALIZATION

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.

Film screenings The exhibition includes a program of five films by Jasmila Zbanic, Goran Devic, Pavel Braila, Renata Poljak and Michael Blum. The films will be screened in the Micro Cinema for two weeks each during the exhibition period.

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

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 Hillesø, Jee-Eun Kim, Christian Schult.

Pressetext

NORMALIZATION

mit 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 & Soren Holm Hvilsby, Silke Wagner, Jasmila Zbanic, Ahmet Ogut, Erkan Özgen & Sener Özmen