You Are All Individuals!

Castrum Peregrini - Amsterdam
Curated by Nina Folkersma

By Paco Barragán

One of the promotion clips of the show “You Are All Individuals!” showcases the famous scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979) in which Brian, who is mistaken for the Messiah and tired of people following him, shouts out loud from the window: “You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anybody. You’ve got to think for yourselves. You are all individuals.” Like goats, the crowd replies: “Yes, we are all individuals,” except for one who says: “I’m not!” Monty Python’s intelligent humor deals with the core of the matter. It’s refreshing to confirm how good humor never leaves us: “Expect the Spanish Revolution!” says a banner in Plaza del Sol’s square in Madrid where the ‘indignados’ with politics and capitalism are camped for a different future, hinting at the sketches, “I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition!”

Enrique Marty, 80 Fanatics (detail) (2008-10), sculptural installation, mixed media, Photo: Simon Bosch. Courtesy Castrum Peregrini, Amsterdam.

Beside the exhibition “You Are All Individuals!” curated by Dutch Nina Folkersma, the project comprises a magazine titled Fanatismo, an online fanaticism awareness test, workshops, and a public talk initiated and organized by Castrum-Peregrini.

In the actual wake of nationalisms, patriotisms, and populisms, both from the right and left wing, amid an economically, politically, and socially unstable state, being an individual can be not only hard, but equally frightening and lonesome. Individuals are not easily accepted let alone tolerated. Being an individual goes against the group and its rules and privileges, and being part of the group means feeling safe and benefitting from its power. The question that the exhibition poses is basically, how are we as individuals influenced by a group, and when does a group turn into fanaticism?

The exhibition tries to answer this by showcasing the old and new work of five artists-Yael Bartana (Israel/The Netherlands), Enrique Marty (Spain), Daya Cahen (The Netherlands), Köken Ergun (Turkey), and Daniel Svarre (Denmark)-and reflecting on the individual-collective dichotomy, which basically could be read in terms of assuming your responsibilities as an individual or, paradoxically, not assuming them as a member of a group.

Possibly the most noted presence is the work of Spanish artist Enrique Marty, whose smaller reinstallment is of the sculptural installation 80 Fanatics-different sculptures of himself in soldier uniforms with monster-like, bloody faces, together with the impressive wall painting, Sainte Guillotine, in which military as a religious ideology is reinterpreted both formally and conceptually in an obsessive manner. Next to the wall painting, but in an adjacent room, we find the film Birth of a Nation (2010) by Dutch Daya Cohen. This piece takes on the fascination for the military and its indoctrination techniques by looking at the Russian Military Academy Cadet School Number 9 in Moscow where girls age 11-17 learn how to become the ideal Russian woman and patriot. Outside, on the right, we find an older video work-Untitled (2004)-from Turkish artist Köken Ergun, in which the artist, in a tranquil and ritualistic manner, tries out different ways of wearing a headscarf with all its layered meanings in front of the camera. When we descend the stairs to the basement, which has been used as an exhibition space, we find one of the most compelling works in the show, We Lived Our Ordinary Lives (2011): a sound piece that reaches the listener from behind books and shelves with excerpts from guilty pleas from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and the always contradictory concept of ‘due obedience.’ The omnipresent Yael Bartana presents a new optimistic reinterpretation of the legendary photographs of Leni and Herbert Sonnenfeld, in which Palestinians and Jews are portrayed together in a kibbutz in Tel Aviv looking into an optimistic future. Finally, the sculptural installation, Group 30 by Danish artist Daniel Svarre, consisting of 30 headless men holding each other in a closed circle, is a good metaphor of group forming, crowd behavior, fanaticism, and the scope of this interesting exhibition.

(May 7-June 12, 2011)