|
[December 5th 2002]
Interview
Andreas Schulenburg and Mads Steen: Together
but alone
Running in the Family - interviews
Art historians Katrine Olldag, Maria Kristensen
and Louise Wolthers invited a number of people with and without
artistic education to investigate the importance of family experiences
to concepts such as free will, integrity and individuality. The
result was a fine, thought-provoking exhibition, and kopenhagen.dk
met with parts of the self-proclaimed artist family at I-N-K for
a chat about roles, relations and power structures. Text and photo:
Julie Damgaard Nielsen
Running in the Family
Sofie Hesselholdt, Vibeke Mejlvang, Tine Kortermand, Andreas
Schulenburg, Nynne Haugaard Pedersen, Nikolaj Kilsmark, Mads Steen,
Tina Lybæk, Annemette Nielsen, Ulla Hvejsel, Charlotte Clausen,
Marie Kristensen, Louise Wolthers, Katrine Olldag
November 2nd — November 30th 2002
I-N-K (Institute of Contemporary Art)
Nørregade 7C, basement, 1165 Copenhagen K
Tel. +45 33 93 94 60
Th-Fr 15-2, Sa-Su 12-20
mail@i-n-k.dk
www.i-n-k.dk
Running in the Family: Collective work
Why address a concept like family, which, today, seems to be
a somewhat unstable institution?
Katrine Olldag: Precisely because it is an unstable
concept, it is interesting to address it. It is a topic that a broad
audience can relate to. It is very controversial, because there
are so many ways of being together in a family, and the starting
point was a critique of this social interaction. It was also about
a desire to create a more concrete thematic exhibition, because
there were so many exhibitions in Copenhagen with indistinct themes,
decided on after people had been put together.
Ulla Hvejsel: Even if "family" is a blurred concept,
you often see that reports on TV focus on the unfortunate in families
falling apart and the divorce rates. To me, families then become
something that people try to hang on to, and there is reason to
address this institution.
You have worked together as an alternative family during the
past year - what has that process been like?
Tina Lybæk: It has been as in all families - sometimes
it is fantastic, sometimes it is not.
Ulla Hvejsel: You spend a lot of time discussing trifles.
Marie Kristensen: We made a point of keeping discussing
things, since it is such a difficult concept. There are many different
approaches to it.
You have done collective works before - how do you approach
the work when so many people are involved in the creative process?
Katrine Olldag: The wall was created precisely because it
is difficult to capture a concept like family. We had some big discussions
about identity as such, gender roles and family roles, and we would
like to ask a number of questions that tended towards ladies' magazines,
like "should I wear high heels when I have just given birth?"…We
thought it would be funny to take the piss out of all the pressure
and all those things that you always beat yourself up with. We wanted
to look at the way life is idealised through the media, the things
you say to yourself. We sat in a circle and made a list of 200 sentences
or statements. It all just came to us. So did the wall - one thing
led to another.
Tina Lybæk: It is also characteristic that the wall
is filled with conflicting statements. Many of them are deeply sexist,
and it is interesting that they are there as well.
Several of the statements are not directly related to family,
such as "Is it important to laugh" and "Should I
shave my legs?". Why are those statements there?
Annemette Nielsen: Is it not difficult to distinguish the
family from the individual? The family project is also about defining
oneself as an individual, and those statements express that. Somehow,
the family concept is dissolved in this piece - and in society as
such, where we are one big family: The family Denmark.
Katrine Olldag: We wanted people to do pieces that fell
within this theme. In that process, a collective feeling arose that
made demarcations obsolete. Everyone made art AND arranged, and
I find that extremely fucking interesting. In a family, you are
often designated a role. I am a daughter and a big sister, and that
role is very strictly defined. I am being kept in that role by others,
who do not necessarily do so on purpose but because they themselves
are stuck with their roles. There is an interplay of roles, and
there is a point in the way in which we work interactively with
this exhibition and try to dissolve and let go of some of those
roles.
Annemette Nielsen: To a degree we need roles. It is not
just a negative thing. However, it is important to show that you
can be separate from the roles - that the roles do not define your
actions entirely….
When the exhibition closes in on the old-fashioned, bourgeois
family structure, it does so with a certain irony and in an outmoded
fashion. Is that a manifestation that there is little left of this
structure?
Katrine Olldag: We have discussed that a lot. We all come
from different backgrounds - some are only children, some have divorced
parents, some come from extended families. All have their own point
of departure, and some have wanted to be more critical than others.
Others have no desire to lash out, but are more investigative. And
as for your question - yes, the nuclear family does exist, I can
give you a number…
You came from different backgrounds but have all ended up here
and have worked with an artistic expression - is there a point in
emphasising the values that you all share?
Annemette Nielsen: We come from different backgrounds, but
we are also very much alike. At meetings, we have found the same
things in our backgrounds to be funny, ironic or outrageous - or
in the family as such. We are the same age, are all white Danes
and belong to a Christian culture. We are very much alike in this
society - and that is represented here. We could have done an exhibition
that was a lot more focused on radically different families or cultural
forms.
Tine Kortermand: We are talking about the European family
here. No other culture is represented. I recognise the stories from
the women I have interviewed, in my own family. The same conflicts
typically arise between mother and daughter. The mother feels that
she has sacrificed her life for her children, and now she expects
them to thank her. I think many people recognise that. In this way,
the exhibition is very homogenous.
Sofie Hesselholdt: There is something good and bad in all
family structures. Perhaps that is why the exhibition has become
rather critical. It has been difficult to see the happy alternative
- maybe there isn't one. Or the nuclear family is the best - I suppose
it depends on who you are as a person.
Tine Kortermand: I think we have a different approach today
than the baby boomers, who tried to experiment with families and
had lovers left and right. Today, we each try to create our own
idea - and perhaps it turns out that we are not at all interested
in dispensing with the nuclear family. Maybe you really want a partner
and three children. Now it is more 1:1. How can I solve the conflict
with my family, what can I do differently? How can I avoid repeating
unfortunate patterns in my own family?
Annemette Nielsen and
Tina Lybæk: Without Title
Annemette Nielsen: The door symbolises the boundaries we
set up for who we are as a family. In other words, we construct
the family within certain limits. You do not just close the door,
however, you also have lookouts - represented by the spy holes -
and define yourself by distancing yourself from the ones who are
certainly not family. We have tried to show different family forms
- also the ones that some people distance themselves from, like
MC gangs or Muslim families. The door can also be the door to your
own home - behind which you distance yourself from the things that
you find problematic within your own family. Perhaps you repress
certain things. We have tried to show that with images of incest
or a stressed family that have no time for each other.
Katrine Olldag: What
have we done to deserve this?
Katrine Olldag: I thought it would be interesting to do
a personal, evocative piece. It may be that it is a snobbish lash
at bad taste. It reflects a repressive atmosphere, where everything
has to be incredibly nice and cosy, and where no one talks about
the things that lurk beneath the surface. It is all drowned in biscuits,
coffee and loads of alcohol, so that we can collapse in front of
a John Wayne film around 8 pm. The soundtrack is a mother who gets
more and more wound up and becomes more and more rambling - and
trivial.
When you point out the subconscious patterns and power structures
in your family, does that help you to break free from them?
Katrine Olldag: In any case, it is interesting to relate
to your own background from a humorous angle - and it is nice to
hear other people say "I recognise this". Art can be used
very actively. Not as therapy - although that may be possible -
but as mediation, communication.
Andreas Schulenburg and
Mads Steen: Together, but still alone
Andreas Schulenburg: We have tried to create the most stereotyped
family - if that even exists. Anyway, we are trying to create one
with the most boring and stereotyped clothes. Through the walk-man
you can hear what the family are thinking, and it may be that they
are thinking something completely different than they appear to.
They think past one another.
Ulla Hvejsel in co-operation
with Running in the Family: ....yours
sincerely
Ulla Hvejsel: I did some greetings cards. As a starting
point, I thought it was funny that you can send pre-printed cards.
It emphasised the fixed frameworks we have for certain events in
society. I am trying to address some different but equally celebrated
concepts, such as the transition between school and the future.
Something we have to overcome, so that we can go out and be like
our parents. The piece is an attempt to make the merchandise for
a new set of traditions - in the same way as we have adopted Halloween,
mother's day and father's day. If the merchandise is in the stores,
it is easier to adopt the traditions. I have tried to get them out
into different stores, but it is not going too well, so now I am
sneaking them into the cardholders.
Tine Kortermand: Dear
Mother! (Girls' monologues)
Tine Kortermand: I have interviewed different women about
their relationships with their mothers, and from those interviews
I have created little monologues. This is one-way communication.
There is no dialogue between the children and their mothers. Perhaps
these patterns will repeat themselves, so that the grown woman ends
up bringing the conflict with her into her relationship with her
own children.
The women you have interviewed are grown women, but in the videos
you let little girls speak…
Tine Kortermand: A lot of the experiences come from childhood,
so it is the voice of the child that talks about them. Although
you do not have the words for them until you are an adult.
Sofie Hesselholdt and
Vibeke Mejlvang: It´s got to be
perfect
Sofie Hesselholdt/Vibeke Mejlvang: This installation consists
of a turning table, music and pictures on the wall. The same faces
are in the pictures and on the table.
Sofie Hesselholdt: We have tried to recreate a dining room
in a bourgeois, middle class home in Denmark. They have tried to
make it nice, with a flowered tablecloth and some designer lamps,
a plant and curtains. But they have not really succeeded; the mood
is a little cold and sinister. We try to get our lives to look incredibly
happy, even if there are all kinds of things lurking that we never
talk about. In the pictures, the family are doing some spooky, strange
things that can be seen as symbols of something in the warped family
life. We built the piece as a stage to emphasise the acting aspect.
The window looks like something out of a toy theatre.
Charlotte Clausen: Christian/Freja/Thomas/Ina/Peter
Charlotte Clausen: I teach art at a continuation school,
and for the exhibition I have interviewed five of my old students.
It fascinates me to hear what young people dream about, how they
imagine their future and their romantic ideas about their future
family structures. The teenage years are exciting; they are a time
of searching the external world and defining oneself, with regard
to clothes as well as political views. It corresponds to the process
you go through in your thirties, where you also do a lot of searching,
but that is more about defining yourself internally. Where things
become more spiritual. As an interviewer, I am now in the position
that these five persons are talking about, and when I ask them if
they think they have taught their parents anything, they have no
answer. When you know how much you learn from your child, it is
incredible that they have not sensed anything.
Nynne Haugaard and
Nikolaj Kilsmark: The Price
Nynne Haugaard Pedersen: Our video The Price is an image
of a different family structure. The title refers to Al Pacino's
last words in the film Godfather: "That's the price you pay
for the life you choose". Our video says something about a
relation that is not biological but based on mutual interest. Today,
family can also be about close friendships. We create families that
are not tied together by blood. Of course, those relations have
their drawbacks, and that is emphasised by the sentence "That's
the price you pay..." However, it is true of all family relations
that we pay a price.
Edited and translated by Nina Jagd Andersen
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)