Disidentifikation Göteborgs Konsthall, Gothenburg

People like slogans. They’re catchy, sometimes fun, and even if the original meaning gets a bit lost, they still sound good coming off of the tongue. 60s feminist mantra “The Personal Is Political” is one such slogan that has been repeated so many times, not only in contexts of political or gender studies but also in art, that its meaning has been nearly obliterated by sheer repetition, becoming a true mantra in the sense on a meditational tool rather than a call to arms. So here’s a new question based on an old statement: Is the fictionalization of the personal also political?

Disidentifikation at Göteborgs Konsthall seems to pose this question through the work of 8 artists that explores the political potential of alternative ‘world-making’. Kalup Linzy’s videos (pictured above) use the conventions of soap operas, Hollywood melodramas, and MTV culture to create boldly satirical, absurd, and often touching critiques of the construction of identity through stereotypes of race, gender, class and sexuality. Whereas this and many other works in the exhibition operate through more theatrical processes of costume and disguise, Simon Fujiwara’s Welcome to the Hotel Munber presents a fictionalized full reality based on real-life anecdotes, oral narratives and photo documentation of his parents. The installation, a reconstruction of a Spanish hotel bar run by his parents during the last years of Franco’s dictatorship, constructs a tale of personal and political struggles that ultimately leads to Fujiwara’s own exile in Mexico and an experience where facts are no longer distinguishable from fictions.

Also exhibited are works by Nick Cave, Lukas Duwenhögger, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Charlotte Gyllenhammar, Wangechi Mutu and Tracey Rose.

July 2 – October 31, 2010 at Goteborgs Konsthall, Gotaplatsen, SE- 412 56 Goteborg, Sweden. Tuesday and Thursday 11am – 6pm, Wednesday 11am – 8pm, Friday – Sunday 11am – 5pm. Admission Free.

Planning a visit, then base yourself at our favourite place in Gothenburg – the Hotel Flora.

Image by Carlo Baudone

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Categories: Art

Contributing writer: Melissa Frost