Main Building

The 2011 exhibition researched the implications of fear both as a motif and concept within artistic practice, as an explicit or implicit attitude directed towards art, and as a driving force within society as a whole.

How does fear, constantly present as an existential factor within people’s everyday lives and as a mass medial tool within the propaganda machinery of the worlds “power houses”, both secular and religious, influence the way we perceive ourselves confronted with other peoples and societies, in the understanding of centre and periphery, and in the shaping of both personal and national identity?

How do concepts of fear challenge our understanding of the artist and art’s role within society, tracing the value of art back to the concepts of the avant-garde and interpreting artistic practice as a critical position with the ability to reflect, comment and eventually change our often preconceived notions of the dynamics defining society? Can art influence the complex structures of society or is art today reduced to a mere instrument of the same structures governing other and often more negatively charges communication strategies?

The questions described above make up the defining parameters of the exhibition SCREAM – AN EXHIBITION ON FEAR where curator Göran Green is inviting artist from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands and England to contribute in the discussion of arts function in the face of societies increasing focus on external and internal threats, real or a product of mass suggestion. The exhibition seeks to describe and open up a discussion about the implications of fear, inviting the public to contribute their own experiences and notions about the concept.

Kurator: Göran Green

(7.5 – 2.10. 2011)