STⒶTE OF BEING

A group exhibition consisting of works by twelve artists read from a perspective of how the existance of the state influences the behaviour of the individual. The artists have all worked in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden - often celebrated as the best example of a well-functioning welfare state.

Featuring:

Mads Aarøe
Emma Bernhard
Miriam Bäckström
Viktor Fordell
Johanna Gustafsson Fürst
Julius Göthlin
Daniel Hoflund
Simon Mullan
Evan Roth
Linnea Sjöberg
Sophie Tottie
Lisa Trogen Devgun

"To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality."

- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, "The General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century"

"Therefore a wise prince ought to adopt such a course that his citizens will always in every sort and kind of circumstance have need of the state and of him, and then he will always find them faithful."

- Machiavelli, "The Prince"