ARTISTS
Behzad Khosravi Noori
Stockholm
April - May 2012
The Discourse of Multiculturalism in the Logic of Art from and about Hyper-Politicized Societies
Case study: The representation of Middle East and Middle Eastern in Swedish television since 1976 beginning of Multiculturalism in Sweden.
The role of media in general has a repercussion effect on the public opinion. It has a very strong role in stereotyping and disseminating biased information in modern communication. In this context, the relation between the media and its audiences, between the actor and spectator creates a complex that is both impalpable and disturbing.
This relation consists of wide amplitude of different aspects; from the message broadcasted through media to the institutions involved, from how the message is illustrated to how people observe and make meaning out of such messages, from the reality to the politically made fiction out of this reality.
This biased representation is widespread in the realm of media regardless of the political geographies. In other words it is not only practiced in the so-called first world or Western media but also in the so-called third world media. Here it is very interesting and at the same time necessary to study how and in which political situation these pictures are produced and broadcasted and at the same time, those involved in making and creating these pictures or in the other word and in general “Artists” perform their role politically within the political realm of media.
The aim of this project is to understand the way of presenting culture from and about hyper politicized realms and the relation between the political perspectives beyond the culture under the name of Multiculturalism. Hyper politicized societies in this project are societies where any action or motion immediately associated with one or the other side of the previous conflict. This research aims at mapping out the specific image and representation of Middle East and Middle Eastern in the Swedish media since 1976, (the beginning of Multiculturalism in Sweden, in relation to the idea of Swedish Multiculturalism) with the focus on Iran and Afghanistan. This is to be done within the context of Sweden’s past and present relations with these countries and these regions, in the realm of media; with considering the fact that it has always been a distant relation as Sweden lacks any colonial experiences in the Middle East.
This project is going to Study about cultural diversity and cultural policy through “political art projects” from and about these regions. The main point is to understand the vision of culture of the “others” as minorities from the idea of cultural diversity to the politics of culture, from culture as a pure and solid character in hyper politicized societies (under the name of Multiculturalism) to how it is represented through media. This research tries to understand how the idea of culture, which is presented as a “humanitarian” and “righteous”, can have a different and many times opposite effect on public opinion.
Behzad Khosravi Noori (Tehran 1976) is an Iranian artist based in Stockholm. His artistic practice is mainly based on research within the field of transformation of culture in recent historical experiences through the necessity of everyday life and media.
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ARCHIVE
Marta Bogdanska Dominik Kurylek Ivars Gravlejs Jaana Kokko Lena Séraphin Sasha Huber and Petri Saarikko Laercio Redondo and Birger Lipinski Tarek Zaki Phil Hession Dzamil Kamanger, Kalle Hamm, Minna Henriksson and Sezgin Boynik Heidi Lunabba JP Kaljonen |
Residence Botkyrka is run by Botkyrka konsthall, with support from The Foundation for the Culture of the Future, in collaboration with the City Planning Department in the municipality of Botkyrka, the Multicultural Centre and the housing corporation Botkyrkabyggen.