Om politisk korrekthet och HUR DET KAN DÖDA DEN DEBATT som så väl behövs

Del 1: Tårtan på Jimmy
För några veckor sedan blev Jimmy Åkesson "tårtad" på en publikt framträdande på Nytorget i Stockholm. 
Så här sa polisen efteråt: ”En tårta kan tyckas oförargligt och lite ”lustigt”. Men det är en attack på en folkvald politiker. Vi själva och Säpo har inte lyckats i dag”, enl en artikel i SvD den 5 november.
Vidare från artikeln: 
Linus Bylund, stabschef för Jimmie Åkesson och pressekreterare, kallar händelsen för tragisk:
– Det är ytterligt tragiskt att de tar sig friheten att försöka att tysta andra människors åsikter/ samt
Flera politiker fördömer i sociala medier tårtattacken mot Åkesson, däribland Vänsterpartiets partiledare Jonas Sjöstedt och Kristdemokraternas dito, Göran Hägglund:
”Läser om tårtattack mot Jimmie Åkesson. Hur mkt man än ogillar hans politik är det oacceptabelt att gå till handgripligheter”(Göran Hägglund). 
(http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/tartattack-mot-jimmie-akesson_8694736.svd)

När blev svensk politik så tråkig? När tappade politikerna bort ideologin, humorn och självdistansen? När bev de så fega? De skyndar sig att försvinna i den politiska korrekthetens gråaktiga gröt, en kör av samstämmiga fördömanden som kan sammanfattas med ungefär "Vi stödjer inte SD's politik men det är såklart inte ok att använda handgripligheter och våld för att tysta en politiker, det är odemokratiskt". 

Själv tycker jag att tårtor är rätt bra, och ägg. Inte för att det kanske är det sätt jag själv skulle använda för att framföra min åsikt, och det är klart att debatten skulle bli lite enformig om det bara skulle handla om kastandet av matvaror fram och tillbaka men å andra sidan kan läget ju knappast bli mindre innehållslöst än vad det redan är. Jag tycker helt enkelt att det tillför något i politiken (humor). En tårta är inte våld. Vi måste kunna skilja på våld och en tårta. En politiker måste kunna ta ett offentligt förlöjligande utan att hänfalla åt gnäll om bristande demokratiska metoder. Förslag; skratta åt det, skratta åt dig själv och åt det fåniga. Att politikern ifråga känner sig kränkt handlar mer om hans eller hennes bristande kapacitet att bemöta den oväntade känslan av plötsligt underläge, om stress och försvar, än om våld och bristande demokrati. Men vi kan inte ha en politisk debatt som präglas av stress och försvar, feghet och kränkta egon. Övriga politiker måste skärpa sig och inte dras med i det där, men så är nu inte fallet. Istället skyndar de alla att göra uttalandet som i princip går i linje med sammanfatningen ovan; "Vi stödjer inte SD's politik men det är såklart inte ok att använda handgripligheter och våld för att tysta en politiker, det är odemokratiskt, vi kan inte, vill inte, gå in i en debatt med odemokratiska aktörer. Det är att hänfalla åt de antidemokratiska krafternas försök till uppmärksamhet". Mer eller mindre. Men förutom att debatten blir ännu tråkigare utan tårtor kan man undra om det inte är strategin ovan som är delvis problemet i dagens politik. Det är ju just den debatten vi måste ta eller? Liksom vi som inte håller med SD måste gå in i debatten även om vi inte håller med om järnrör och främlingsfientlighet. Eller för att förtydliga: Just därför att vi inte håller med om om järnrör och främlingsfientlighet. Men ska vi prata på riktigt om det som är verkligt jobbigt, så tycker åtminstone jag att det är rätt sjysst med en avspännande tårtkastning då och då. 

Snart kommer: Jimmy i flaggstången

(Vilken tårta vill du helst ha i ditt ansikte?)





PLATT SKATT och om vilket arbete som belönas ekonomiskt

Tidigare under dagen fördes ett resonemang på Godmorgon världen angående sk "platt skatt".
Tydligen är detta relevant eftersom begreppet på något sätt behandlats inom Folkpartiet nyligen (men nobbats av partistyrelsen till förmån för det mer neutrala begreppet "höjd brytpunkt").
Både Johan Norberg och en representant för den fackliga tankesmedjan Katalys (som jag tyvärr missade vad han hette) lyfter fram detta som något negativt, i den meningen att det strävar efter att dölja de ideologiska skiljelinjerna som ligger till grunden för politiken idag. Syftet med att dölja dessa skiljelinjer skulle vara för de stora partierna att inte förlora eventuella mittenväljare genom ideologisk profilering.

Hur som helst:
På något sätt gillar jag Johan Norberg - vi har ideologiskt fundamentalt olika åsikter, men i grund och botten tror jag att han har ett djupt engagemang för rätt och fel, frihet och för att människor över hela världen ska få det bättre. Vi har detta engagemang gemensamt så att säga, men utifrån det läser vi in olika saker och drar olika slutsatser.

Han säger bl a att ett argument för sk platt skatt är att människor som utbildar sig och jobbar hårt inte ska bestraffas för att de därmed får högre inkomster. Men den premissen stämmer ju inte mer än delvis. Det finns många utbildningskrävande (och samhälleligt mycket nödvändiga) yrken som aldrig genererar särskilt höga inkomster, t ex barnmorskor, sjuksköterskor och lärare.
Två faktum är uppenbara: För det första är vare sig utbildningsnivån i sig eller arbetsbördan är direkt knutna till huruvida någon har hög eller låg inkomst. För det andra skulle en platt skatt enbart gynna de strukturer som redan ligger till grund för ovanstående skevhet. Åtgärdar vi den skevheten och ser till att det faktiskt är hårt arbete och hög utbildning som belönas så skulle kanske en platt skatt vara mer rimlig.
MEN, då finns det ju ett annat problem: Ett samhälle kan ju sägas bygga på att ett antal olika funktioner finns tillgängliga och fungerar. Förutom frågan ovan, dvs hur många av dessa funktioner som belönas ekonomiskt i utifrån utbildningsnivå och arbetsbörda, kommer också frågan hur mycket av det som nödvändigtvis måste utföras som faktiskt kräver en hög utbildning. Sopgubbe till exempel, kräver kanske så mycket utbildning, men det är viktigt av många anledningar att sophämtningen fungerar (inte minst ur hälsosynpunkt). Butiksanställda, postanställda, administratörer eller anställda vid olika kundtjänster är också viktiga för att vardagen över huvudtaget ska fungera. Kanske inte så till den grad att samhället kollapsar om en busschaffis är sjuk en dag men vem är egentligen så viktig? Professorer i all ära, men är de nödvändiga för samhällets välmående eller räcker det med ett gäng skärpta ingenjörer? Frågan utvecklas till: Borde vi inte belöna nödvändighet snarare än hög utbildning? Det är ju det som brukar anföras när man pratar om konstnärer med 8-åriga utbildningar som klagar över att de inte får något betalt trots sin långa utbildning; man måste ju förhålla sig till om yrket är samhällsnyttigt när man väljer sin utbildning (med andra ord "de får väl skylla sig själva"). Man pratar inte lika mycket om det när det gäller bankdirektörer som ansvarslöst försätter hela samhället i finansiell kris men belönas miljonbonus snarare än avsked och ev åtal.
Jag vill bara ställa frågan.

Så det enda jag vill är att påvisa på varför de här resonemangen inte håller:
1) Premissen att hög utbildning och hårt arbete kulle belönas av en platt skatt håller inte, eftersom hög utbildning och hårt arbete inte huvudsakligen lägger grunden till hög inkomst idag.
2) Det är inte ens självklart att det borde vara hög utbildning som ska ligga till grunden för inkomstens storlek -snarare då hårt arbete och samhällsnytta. Eller?

Om argumentet för sänkta skatter sedan skulle vara att få människor att konsumera mer för att på så sätt hålla det ohållbara konsumtionssamhället under armarna ytterligare en tid, så framgår det inte varför det är bättre att de som har mer spenderar mer, än att de som har mindre spenderar mer. Det gör väl ingen skillnad på om det är låg- och mellaninkomsttagare samt småföretagare som spenderar mer än höga företagschefer? Eller?


Stockholm
13-12-01 (Första advent)
Write to me om du har något vettigt att komma med (jag får så mycket spam om typ youtube videos om Miley Cyrus i min gmail att det inte mycket kan vara värre....)
reading.notes.ideas@gmail.com

Denial - Manning, Assange, Snowden




Today I read about Bradley Manning in the newspaper, how the most serious charge has been dropped (that of giving information to the enemy) but that he still goes for min 20 years in prison.

And it struck me, that this happens at the same time as we in the West (read Sweden, this is me assuming that we belong to a sort of ideological block incl Western Europe and US) condemn how journalists and whistleblowers are imprisoned in Turkey, Syria, Ethiopia. We hold this information forth as a proof of lack of democracy. It is uncivilized, barbaric. 

Manning, Assange, Snowden. Now the story is different, there are no moralistic condemnations from European governments here, noone stands up to take points in righteousness by claiming the release of these political prisoners. Obviously because noone wants to make enemies with the US (thats showing to be very prickly about these issues). Fair enough, this is just part of the worlds general shittyness. What is sickening is not the general shittyness of the Western governments along with it many others, but the denial about it. 

Manning, Assange, Snowden are whistleblowers and have done us a great service in standing up for values that the West (admittedly; mostly in theory) are built on. This is freedom of speech; the freedom to speak up when you see wrongdoings, the freedom to expose your own government when it is not living up to its own principles. This freedom and consequential transparency is what democracy and mutual trust between government and citizen is built on. But its not a freedom if you will be sentenced to 20-136 years in prison for exercising your right. Or if, as in case Assange and Snowden, you have to flee your country, flee globally, to not disappear into some juridical greyzone á la Guantanamo never to return. And the global silence in this case (as in opposition to Turkey, Syria, Ethiopia) is like the dull muted pressure when you're in an airplane with a cold. You look down on the world and you feel distanciated. 

People aren't comfortable with it though, we sort of think these guys are heroes, we're just not going to take the fight. 

And the fight that we don't take is the fight on one hand for the freedom of speech and transparency of government, and the other of right to privacy from government and corporate scanning/ surveillance. The balance is shifting, from protecting the civilian against a potentially aggressive government, it is now a question of protecting the government against a potentially aggressive civil society. 

Are there reasons for this, ie more terrorism now than before? I don't know, IRA, ETA RAF, Weatherman Group are all done with. Or is it just a twisted consequence of the political system, that in some degree leaves the citizen to fend for her- or himself in a world of unemployment and deconstructed wellfare institutions, of a distanciated threat - ie foreign rather than domestic terrorism. Or perhaps WW2 has gone from being contemporary history to history and we no longer build our societies on the learnings from that time. 

In any case - what we actively choose is one thing. What we continue thinking because its easier, more comfortable, more pleasant, is another. To think that we stand for freedom, freedom of speech and non-corrupt government, to think that we are not only morally superior but culturally superior despite the facts that reveal the opposite, THIS is the problem.

How far will it go, what horrible and despicable things will need to happen, until denial becomes impossible?
What will happen then? Will we revert to a society where we fill these words (ie freedom, democracy etc) with real content instead of just using them as smokescreens, or will we just accept hypocrisy and take-what-you-want as the new world order?

As usual, nothing happens abruptly enough that you really register. It just slowly shifts and you never really know what or when the decisive moment happened. 

Anyway - Thank you Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden for standing up for the rights that we are so quick to squander.

13-07-31
Stockholm




SICKNESS - pandemic outbreak thoughts on the rupture of everyday reality



Do you think,
that during your life-time, you will experience a virus/ bacterial outbreak to the extent that you will choose to stay home, to stock up on food?
It is interesting - well, it has not previously been part of my reality - my mother says she doesnt want to be close to my nephew who has a cold, since her boyfriend has a heart problem and if she carries the infection back to him he might get seriously ill. I have never dealt with this sort of considerations. Yet.
I have dealt with "No cant get sick now must work" or "No cant come to your house when you have a bit of a cold cause I dont want to get sick since then I cant work" or "I understand if you dont want to come over now that Im a bit sickish, lets hang out next week instead..."
Whats the difference?
The potential consequences (missing deadline vs. heart failure) ?

But its also that in the latter case I somehow see the sickness as an anomaly - isolate the sick, go on with your life without disturbing routines and plans (Yes I know how it sounds but I think Im not alone to reason like this consciously or not). In the first case, that with my mother, the awareness of the risks of contagiation emphasises the total difference and creates connection points between the reality of thes two relations. This awareness is intrinsic to the routines, this IS the routine, navigating a 5-year old with a runny nose and a 75-year old with a shaky heart.
Perhaps, as they talk of multiresistant bacterias and pandemias, it was more my mothers casual remark about how she was planning her weekend that made it real how illness, and navigating to survive, or for the survival of the ones that you love, can rupture the routines and throw out any plan, at any moment.


Stockholm,
at the office, with a cold coffee and sun reflections on the building opposite

13-03-07

Market/Supermarket - Black and white/ stuff that relates to my work















Virgil Cane 
(Liljevalchs 2013)













Peter Funch
(Market 2013 - WE gallery)

And for the sake of my memory - 
Massimo Vitali who sort of fits in here with his disco series:
















Massimo Vitali

Market/Supermarket - MINIMAL POP

Actually it was one of the artists of the IS gallery that called it "Minimal Pop" - and I think it sort of works.








 
 Magnus Svensson 
(Liljevalchs 2013) Im so sorry for the bad quality of the photograph, I really think this is quite an amazing picture...
















Ninna Helena Olsen
(Liljevalchs 2013)














I feel like I might get lynched for so carelessly throwing in such a might name in this blogpost....
Olafur Eliasson 
(Market)














Dana Bubacova
(Supermarket 2013)






The IS gallery from the Netherlands -(Supermarket 2013)

Market/Supermarket/ - Empty spaces and institutions

Images of empty spaces/ Institutions
To all the artists who's work Im showing below - Im sorry about the bad quality of the photos (on thing HTC didnt do as good as I-ph) and I am sorry about the horrifying colourmatch with the background, Ill fix this latter problem at some point. 


 










Emma Fredriksson (Liljevalchs 2013)














James Copeland (Liljevalchs 2013)
















  Pauliina Pietila (Market 2013)

Trine Sondergard (Market 2013)

See what I mean?
If letting myself be inspired by a show at Global Talks,   then the question becomes: What is the underlying current on a larger scale resulting in the individual artists work? What is the  background to the viewers fascination (including myself - I used to draw on this theme a couple of years ago). 
My Detroit friend complains about  ruintourism and ruin porn, the sensational exploitation of the dereliction and poverty. Is this about the same thing? 

What are the association to these spaces? 
On one hand -  a backside to the sparkly facade of the contemporary society; the loading deck, the office, spaces related to working, rather than consuming. In neither of the cases it is a question of  flexible, high-status work but rather the opposite , the body work, o r the mindnumbing environment of a office-scape. 
On another hand -  the scrutiny of the spaces in which we live our lives... finding the uncanny; that these places turn foreign and cold when we are not there to fill them, or they turn us to the perfect inhabitants of such a place - cold, foreign, distanciated...
On yet another hand (...) perhaps there is simply someting incredibly evocative about these spaces. 
 I think so - I prefer most buildings empty (offices, library, public pools)....

Hmm. Dont really feel satisfied - please come with thoughts and inspiration :-) 

Stockholm 13-03-04
With a whisky in the studio listening to reggae with a purple light over my head

Article on Co-parenting




This picture has absolutely nothing to do with the article - its just...well. 
Your messy kid could win you a washing machine.

Irresistible

MARKET / SUPERMARKET 2013

In general - 
I just feel a deep desire for contextualized work now. Two artfairs and one ultralarge and messy  gallery show (Liljevalchs Spring Salon 2013) and the forcefulness of quantity over depth (in many cases there is no lack of quality, just time- space for processing), is exhausting. I guess it has to do with the lingering fear of "missing something important", so I look and look but to be honest, I don't see much.

This is no way to experience art.

Thus - what have I seen? That I liked?
I think I will divide this in categories rather than mixing in at all up in this post (since doing so would just repeat the attitude of conceptual flatness): 

Black and white/ stuff that relates to my work (I never said the categories would be objective)
http://readings-notes-ideas.blogspot.se/2013/03/marketsupermarket-black-and-white-stuff.html

Images of empty spaces/ Institutions
http://readings-notes-ideas.blogspot.se/2013/03/marketsupermarket-empty-spaces-and.html

Chaos/ Irony/ Kitsch/ Over-the-top/ Ecstasy

 "Minimal Pop"
http://readings-notes-ideas.blogspot.se/2013/03/marketsupermarket-minimal-pop.html

See these as separate posts via the linx ;-)
(coming soon ------>)



Mika Rottenberg at Magasin 3 Stockholm

Awesome! :-)

Scribbles from the cafeteria in the art gallery: 
Nailclippings, breastmilk, milking the earth, body secretions sweat, packaged and sold, shipped over the world, women working, women masturbating women handjob on arms through holes in the ground fertilizationprocess, anonymity, repetition, teams, sweatshop, butts, tongues, a tounge sticking out of a wall a really fat black woman a really fat brown woman the obscene dough coming through the ceiling, managing the dough, handling, managing the body, shaping the body, condensing the body, creating derivates of body and labor for massconsumption, the butch woman truckdriver












Scribbles on phone late at night: 
There is sisterhood, and yet, the numb and monotone process of making consumerproducts that range from complete meaninglessness to a sort of humoristic rebellion (see Tropical Breeze). In this there is recognition both of the fact that women make up the majority and bottomlayer of the labor force  of the current economic system and of the need for cooperation and caretaking amongst these women. Actually even the bodies in space, the working body and the female body as a natural resource to be exploited, a hyperpresence in the working and worked body, as the [mother] earth is milked and the nails are clipped and processed....

These works are about the woman in contemporary society, for once not focused on the woman in the wealthy societies, and yet without the pitying glare that is so common (look at those poor people [read: complete 'other'] and their poor lives....)

The woman as a body, as a body - worker extracting her own fluids - hair or nails - using hair and nails to process the resource into products. Love


I met with an art critic the other day - she used to be my teacher once, and I was surprised and happy to see her again. As it happens she had given a review on the show just a couple of days after I saw it (I tried to find it on her website to link but it seems its not on there...) and, if I understand her correctly, she found it uninspiring/ frustrating (not-like) the hermetic nature of Rottenbergs works. The truth is that these works are extremely hermetic in the sense that "they don't go anywhere", whatever it is it just goes on and on, and the women seem (except in the odd case of the driver in Tropical Breeze) resigned to this destiny of eternal mechanical repetition. I realise that I like that aspect. There is no way out - its like scratching a scab of a wound. The wound being the conflict concerning the possiblity and own capacity to change, the scab being the hope?

Stockholm
13-02-19
My studio is the best place in the world I am so lucky to have this

INGVILD HOVLAND KALDAL

Walked past a show on Gallery Steinsland Berliner and in the middle of a bunch of stuff that didn't blow my mind I saw the monkey pictures. Yes yes, artist to be remembered.
Her website: http://www.ingvildkaldal.com/
THE PICTURE IS A SCREENSHOT FROM HER WEBSITE!


ART ACTIVISM!!!! ! ! !

-->
A note to remember on the art-activism article by Sinziana Ravini in DN on the 26th of January 2013. 
1) Good article, read it. I would link to it here but haven't been able to find it either in SWE or ENG. 
2) The contenta being that the curators of the Berlin Biennale 2012 and Documenta 13 by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev were least to say inspired by an activist aesthetic/ (strategy?) in the forming of the two events. Ranging from inviting Occupy Wallstreet to occupy the Biennale space (you don't occupy something if you are invited to stay there...) (Berlin Biennale) to social gatherings where the visitors to the biennale could meet and eat couscous with refugees from Sahara and political slogans such as  "This is not your museum, this is your action space"..

> Ravini writes [my translation; see original Swe text below] The problem as I see it is that the political art looses its power when comissioned by big organizations like Documenta, as well as biennales and institutions that seek intellectual cred (1). She also writes Personally I got a kick out of it since it was enough to talk to the activists, artists and curators to discover the seriousness and political will behind it all (2).
But then, doesn't this lead back to the same problem as always = there is no bad guy. I personally believe very few people (if any) are innately evil - and we instead have to fight against is the potential disasters caused by  our well-meaning desires to do good mixed with general comfortabillity and selfishness. I don't think anyone at either the Berlin Biennale or Documenta would ever say "Yes, actually I don't care much for these issues but right now Occupy Wallstreet is really "in" and I also want some intellectual cred".... I'm quite sure they don't event think like that when they're alone in their villain's lair....

But still. There is nothing new about these forms of activism, so what is the mechanism that suddenly makes this art? (Is it made art?). What does the artworld get out of it? Is it the artists, driven by social-political consciousness to "do good" that decides to renounce art making for activism > but then, why call it art? Why place it in an art context that swallows it up without hesitation? Doesn't that somehow make it an aesthetic issue?

It seems as if the ideology and the activism itself becomes the new aesthetic mediums. Is this really political then? Or new? I would say no since these types of activities are already established practises and the only thing new about it is that they take place in a contemporary art environment (that effectively counteracts the political by "aesthetizising" the events). But is it art then? Yes, but only if we accept it as purely aestethic events, and its actors as mainly interested in the aestethics of social relations and politics. 

Ideologies and social relations used as (and as interchangeable as) different colours of paint or different expressions of form. The cultural event being the canvas upon which the image is painted, equally other to political struggle and reality as the white cube and the frame. But mindblowing by its sheer nerve and irony. 

----------------------------------------------------------------

(1)"Problemet som jag ser det är att den politiska konsten förlorar sin kraft när den betälls av stora organisationer som Documenta, liksom biennaler och institutioner som söker intellektuell kredd"

(2)"Själv fick jag en kick av det, för det räckte att börja prata med aktivisterna, konstnärerna och curatorerna för att upptäcka allvaret och den politiska viljan bakom det hela."

Sinziana Ravini "Radikala konstaktivister på frammarsch"
Note: In the article Ravini also writes about a series of more successful examples of political art/activism like the Yes Men, Pussy Riot, Kultivator, etc. She writes: No, the true art activism functions like a thief in the night, it gets in where it is not welcome and succeeds both in destabilizing and change the order of things where it ends up.(3)
(3)"Nej, den sanna konstaktivismen fungerar som en tjuv om natten, den tar sig in där den inte är välkomnas och den lyckas både destabilisera och förändra ordningen den hamnar i". 

Stockholm
13-02-02 




on IRONY/ Opinions are a thing of the past -------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

A man I met on a party said to me yesterday that
"OPINIONS ARE A THING OF THE PAST", 
(...well well, are they now, not on this website...but maybe then I am a thing of the past...)

Stockholm
13-01-13 

Brief notes relating to this (subway scribbles on the inside of some book:
Why do I like Wing's singing? (well.. it isnt that I find it good....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovEASuIqVbY )
 
What  the ironic class craves are the products of someone elses naive care and will to respond in a somewhat serious way to whatever goes on around them. To want and to care and to produce is a less developed state. The ironic detachment indicates superiority in conceptual understanding and rational development. Opinions are a thing of the past. Instead, the individuals of the ironic class facilitate the opinions of others - they make art like this, and culture and money.  Television shows, reality shows, radio shows, political debates, artworks, music - its not about making something new instead sampling, collecting, arranging,  presenting, moderating, distributing,  CURATion

Note; I read a critique recently that Google,Youtube, FB essentially earn a bunch of money on advertising and market research and this and that because we use Google, and Youtube to read and watch things produced by people who might never get paid a dime for their work. Its clear that the production side of things is out of fashion.  

As a producer its much harder to just stop doing something something as soon as it isn't the coolest thing anymore. As a producer its about continuity, to do your thing and to get good at it. But to stay ahead of the wave you need flexibility, constant update and then its better to be the facilitator... you get all the cool by association - YOU FOUND THIS ARTIST, YOU FOUND THIS CRAZY ECCENTRIC for your Documentary, YOU HOST THe SHOW WHERE PEOPLE CAN SHOUT THEIR OPINIONS OUT. But you are above it. Opinions are a thing of the past.

And then it comes back, as enter/info-tainment and the ironic creative apolitical non-engaged class consume someone elses life force becuase they are dead inside. They facilitate the performance, watch someone else perform, and watch with jelousy and disgust and incredulity.
Oh and I think I am one of them....

Stockholm
130114 

AWESOME ARTICLE ABOUT IRONY 
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/how-to-live-without-irony/?hp 
article is by -->By CHRISTY WAMPOLE

130114