by Tone O. Nielsen
The exhibition
When the Shit Hits the Fan focuses on the moment "everything turns to shit" - when things break down, and what used to be certain, familiar and safe falls apart and disintegrates. The moment when ...the shit hits the fan...and is scattered all over the room, the individual loses control and is left in a mental vacuum in which the accustomed view of the world has ceased to exist. Life's absolute certainties are no longer absolute, and the sense of direction is blurred.
But why focus on that very moment? Why organize an exhibition to confront the beholder with the collapse of the personal and social universe? Because it is in the collapse of what is acceptable and normative that difference is revealed. It is the shifting of the gaze away from the accustomed sight that makes us aware of the Other/Otherness, and it is in the shadow of the apparent that we spot what was omitted. It is when the familiar things and the kitsch get out of joint that the stereotypes of thought, conception and stagnation become so obvious to the individual that they can be discarded and give way to greater insight. It is not until we dare face "the shit" and get rid of it that we may see behind the sign. The exhibition, therefore, leaves room for individual recognition.
Thus, the subjective experience is the pivot of When the Shit Hits the Fan, a theme that is characteristic for much of today's contemporary art and art exhibitions. The exhibition is not, however, preoccupied with the therapy inherent in private-personal artistic outbursts, which are not always relevant to a detached beholder, but stresses the moment of collapse as the foundation of recognition and personal/social growth. Such recognition is never entirely private but interferes in a world of structures and systems that constitute the subject. Thus, the exhibition may be seen as a private intervention into social, political, anthropological and artistic aspects; it is therefore critical.
The times
The exhibition concept is a product of the current interest in the individual and his/her relation and position in the late-modern world. The identity and subjectivity of late-modern man has lately been the subject of debate not only in a sociological context but also in the world of art and culture, the focus being on the aspect of the personal. The theoretical art of the 80s rose above the local level to reveal and deconstruct the higher power structures that code the subject and place it in a social context, but in the 90s the interest has swung back to what is immediate and personal. It is no longer a must to see everything within a large political and economic framework, personal everyday experiences are also considered important. The subjective experience of the social and cultural environment now forms the basis of the work of art, and personal experiences are communicated to the beholder, who functions as an interlocutor in a dialogue about everyday life.
The focusing of late-modern man on himself/herself is not a form of neurotic narcissism but a byproduct of the times. British sociologist Anthony Giddens holds that our norms and behaviour in the late-modern social establishment are not determined by tradition and custom, since such concepts are no longer transmitted from one generation to the other. Also, within religion, philosophy and the sciences there is no longer any firm belief in pure reason, so the late-modern individual must consult and evaluate a variety of abstract expert systems beyond his/her grasp and control that are constantly being revised by new scientific discovery. According to Giddens this has made late-modern man particularly reflective; he/she must incessantly reflect on himself/herself and his/her surroundings, since nothing is given or self-evident any longer. Doubt has become a predominant trait in the institutions of the late-modern society and in all modern critical thought, since the entire field of knowledge is considered relative and subject to constant revision. In the labyrinth of theories, possibilities and options offered by the modern mass communication society, the individual must choose his/her own life style, career and affiliation - occasionally with implicit faith and running the risk of an unexpected outcome - in an attempt to keep together the elements of his/her personal life. For Giddens the choice and the self-realization become pivotal points in what he terms a late-modern risk-culture : it is not until the individual chooses a life style that he/she can re-establish a kind of meaningfulness that disappeared with the loss of tradition and the constant late-modern demand for development.
Perhaps it is the focus on the personal choice that makes the Danish historian of ideas, Lars-Henrik Schmidt, characterize the individual of the 90s as a consumer. In his view the individual of the 90s has become a consumer of the systems of the welfare society; he/she no longer sees himself/herself as a citizen with certain rights and duties in relation to the state, but as an individual consuming the system on his/her own specific terms. The public and political system is no longer a system of authority and care, but has become a consumer and service system for each individual. According to Schmidt such a radically individualized ethic is the result partly of the care and aid of the late-modern welfare society, and partly of the Fall of the Wall and the ensuing multiculturalism and ethnic decentralization. The Fall of the Wall led to the acceptance of the diversity of individuals and ethnic groups, but at the same time the focusing on ethnic roots gradually produced a political and geographical threat of a spreading Balkanization, leading to more pronounced demarcations between different individuals and between different groups. The individual of the 90s sees himself/herself mainly in terms of his/her difference from others; you create your own identity by distancing yourself from others; thus, the social life of the 90s is based on difference: You mind your own business, attend to your own needs and for a time associate with individuals with the same interests and same behaviour patterns. Schmidt sees this radically individualized ethic as a threat to the willingness to accept your duties as a citizen as soon as your own personal interests go in other directions. A new conflict has arisen between the political and the individual.
The art
As mentioned earlier, the individuality concept of the 90s is traceable in today's contemporary art. The subject's confrontation with and conception of the world now takes the form of a personal meeting, and the majority of the young generation of artists depict a reality experienced individually. An experience or a personal recognition is conveyed to the beholder, but it is not an art that wants to advance universal/elitist statements about life or wants to return to the strong artist egos of Expressionism, who insisted on expressing their own will. The subjective art of the 90s is an open and communicative art, which is essentially social as it wants to include the beholder in its subjective universe. The artist of today no longer wants to be society's moral soothsayer, misunderstood martyr or rebellious revolutionary, but an interlocutor who - together with the beholder - reflects on the personally experienced world and his/her presence in it.
The exhibition When the Shit Hits the Fan focuses on the moment "everything turns to shit" in order to illustrate the individual's meeting with the world and to render visible what Anthony Giddens would call the basic condition of the 90s: the individual choice! The late-modern social order has produced an extremely individualized being, who is the sole decision and identity maker. So in reality the exhibition focuses on the moment of choice - either you choose to reject stereotype thinking in order to move on, or you ignore the writing on the wall and remain stuck in the rut. The exhibition presents 11 young Scandinavian artists who all have something to say about that very moment.
The artists
Morten Goll (DK, born 1964) is the only painter represented in the exhibition; in his four portraits of artists of his own age he depicts individuals who at the crucial moment reject the wonted way and choose to be present and selfaware. In a painterly and matterly perspective this selfrecognition becomes at the same time a metaphor for painting's attempt to maintain its position in the art world among more trendy media, and for the contemporary artist's critical relation to the art institution. Since the early 90s Jens Haaning (DK, born 1965), who exhibits a video installation made in cooperation with Peter Land, has developed an anonymous, raw and aggressive expression in his objects and installations, which focus on the psyche of modern man and retain a critical distance to the social forces that constitute the subject of our times. In his own work Peter Land (DK, born 1966) contrasts the personal with the social and deals mainly with the relations between the public and the private. In his videos Land openly demonstrates a number of personal traumas and psychological conflicts that often balance between the tragic and the comic. Invited into this private and self-revealing universe the beholder frequently feels a certain unease behind the laughter. The relation between the public and the private spheres also constitutes an element in the work of Annika Lundgren (S, born 1964), whose latest installations have demonstrated the discord between private self-appreciation and public appearance. In his early video works, Søren Martinsen (DK, born 1966) uses systematic application of violence to his own body as material for the continued scrutiny of the violence and destruction underneath the smooth surface of any system; here he contributes a number of Dreamachines, whose violently flickering light strives to transform the mental state of the beholder and make him/her go beyond the institutionalized order. For a number of years Nikolaj Recke (DK, born 1969) cooperated with two Danish artists, Christian Heide and Martin Pingel, but now works on his own. He often makes use of his own body as material for what might be termed an examination of the personal conflicts, desires and choices of modern man. This often incorporates a humorous use of language and the body as demonstrated by his contribution to the catalogue. Heli Rekula (SF, born 1963) is preoccupied with the dark side of the social order looking into concepts such as aggression, power and violence. Her works examine the ways in which the individual is constituted in the social order, and how such brutal constitution leaves its mark on the body. Rekula's work does not offer any solutions, but can be seen as an extreme escalation of the moment "when the shit hits the fan". Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen (DK, born 1963) describes his collected work as a frontal attack on logic and aims at rejecting any form of categorization, simplification and repression and at reaching a point where things are revealed in their full complexity. With a room papered with tin foil Schmidt-Rasmussen strives to recreate the moment when you wake up in the sun, dizzy and confused; he thus destroys all forms of familiar structure and direction. As a whole his work may be seen as an anarchist attack on the terror of civilization and socialization. Annika Ström's (S, born 1964) work is a continued scrutiny of social conventions and moral taboos. Her videos and objects use humour to reveal the double standard of modern society, partly by pointing to the inherent urges of modern man that the civilized social order cannot accept, and partly by laying bare the prejudices of the times. Ström's contribution is a video installation based on the myth of "the artistic crisis", trying to define our conception of crisis and decline. Annelie Wallin (S, born 1962) works sculpturally and monumentally and deals with the mental vacuum left by man's loss of vision and overview. In a number of works she has evoked a sense of confinement and constraint and, as she says herself, is trying to give expression to a certain life experience. Lately the last participant in the exhibition Magnus Wallin (S, born 1965) has worked with violence, aggression and unprovoked violence in an attempt at approaching and understanding modern man. The violence and the aggressive element in Wallin's work reflect the late-modern individual's quest for and creation of identity and demonstrate the vulnerability of identity when faced with criticism and lack of ideals. His point of departure is man's constant need for development and the great development pressure placed on the individual by late-modernism.
Thus, When the Shit Hits the Fan does not want to present a one-sided picture of the confrontation with the surrounding world and the breakdown moment. The artists have different conceptions of the exhibition theme, and it is in the scope of the approaches that the breakdown, the subsequent choice and its consequences most clearly manifest themselves.
Translated by Ernst Dupont