”The Departments of Anna Sörenson”
Vernissage fredag 14 november 2014 kl 17–22
Öppet fredag–söndag kl 13–16, tom. söndag 30 november.
Gotlandsgatan 76, Stockholm. Buss 3 och 76 till Gotlandsgatan eller tunnelbana till Skanstull.
We believe in power. Everyday we face power structures and we view them as natural boundaries of reality. We realize that some of us have more power than others, that power is something a lucky few get to have temporarily but that power also can be captured. In any case we expect power to be tied to responsibility and duty, that power would naturally subordinate the human needs and sensibilities. But is it that really how power operates?
The main topic, as I see it, in Anna Sörenson’s conceptual art piece “The Departments” is power. Since 2012 has she staged her performance “Your Application is Pending” (in Stockholm, Brussels, Miami) where she invites the audience to take part and with their contribution they themselves lay the ground for the logic of the procedure and the following analysis. To exercise power needs a clear set of roles and therefore constitutes collaboration.
The advantage in staging the mechanism of power in the context of an art exhibition is that no one will be hurt. But Anna Sörenson’s work shreds light on how something that looks like a ordinary situation truly engage us in a power play, where every one who takes part is ordering themselves in the power structure, whether he or she wants it or not.
Come and get a taste of power at Candyland the 14th of November!
Jean Ploteau
Born and raised in Stockholm, Anna Sörenson received her BFA from Umeå University in Sweden. In 2012, Anna received her MFA from Pratt Institute supported by her Fulbright Scholarship. 2014 she graduated from a.pass, a yearlong post-master program in performance art in Brussels, Belgium.
She assembled her first solo exhibition in the fall of 2012, at Ed Varie in New York City and has exhibited her work in Stockholm, Brussels, Berlin, New York and Miami. She currently lives and works in Stockholm.