Dagsins mótmælislist er eitt antikapitalistiskt innlegg frá listakvinnuni Silju Strøm, sum býr í Glasgow. Umframt listarliga arbeiðið er hon farin at skriva um list og samfelag.
Glasgow, September
2013
Dear Friends,
It is possible
that there there have been harder, more painful times than these. Even so,
harder times remain engrained in our collective memory as times of urgent
discussion, crystal clear causes to fight or to fight for, distinct targets of
dissent, strength in numbers and collective bravery.
The people came
together and change in the right direction came about as a result. It feels
like a long time since this has appeared like a realistic outcome of critical
gatherings. And it might have happened when the public stopped forming
collectively and became mass. The mass is governed while the collective
collaborates and contributes. Both consist of individuals, subjects, but the
collective voice, it appears, is more easily silenced now and the words to
scream more difficult to find.
The mass is always
governed, but the subjects of the mass refuse to identify as such unless they
are, some how, lead to believe that we all are similar and yet also different.
Every day we hear warnings that tell us of the dangers and of the importance to
protect the individuals’s right over the mass, yet every day we passively, by
not standing our ground, give away rights that would help our voices to be
heard. Less and less significant the individual’s voice becomes, as the
connective tissue that binds the collective together is slowly dissolved,
ironically in dreams of liberty.
We are referred to
by our singularity and we are governed by the fear of sharing each other’s
misery. Loving one another has become difficult. How we relate to one another -
what we have to share - decreases as our subjectiveness narrows and becomes
more and more specific.
In pace with the
imminent proliferation of globalisation, the physical and virtual space of
visual representation is also growing, though decreasing in intensity and in
urgency. Platforms for expression emerge and more is made visible, but despite
all these opportunities available to us, less and less their significance sets
out to derail the ominous propaganda of growth and profit.
We are flooded
with images and fragments of derivative text that want to include us, and
slowly a subtle change in ownership of our bodies is taking place. Not only are
our bodies no longer ours, they don’t represent the values we once shared.
‘Public’ used to be spaces where our bodies were not subjugated to the control
of others, but what is ‘public’ now other than a definition for order and a
descriptive term for consumer strategies.
Don’t buy in to
capitalist ideas of freedom. Freedom can’t be bought.
I don’t want our
emotional realm to become poor or dangerous. I am aware of the fact that an art
practice might not change much as an isolated activity, but an art practice can
transcribe struggles. And it can open up narratives that traditional outlets
usually won’t. Artists create the forms of expression mass media later learns
to exploits. Artists: Remembering everything, resisting through our memory,
telling the stories that the domination silences, refusing to become victims of
our own idea of security, this could be a beginning.
Silja Strøm
