PN/CZ

Divus Gallery

Prague, Czech Republic

Curators: Lenka Klodova,

Ivan Mecl

Private Nationalism Project

PRIVATE NATIONALISM PROJECT

PNP

The Post-Cold War world loved to share the illusion that the system of nation-states is declining, and is not the major force anymore in the time of globalization. This wide spread account was not bothered by the fact that in the early nineties new states mushroomed on the very site of the collapsed Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. The idea of vanishing of all those obsolete trends and currents, among them nationalism, that was believed to belong to the modern age in essence, has been also promoted by the discourse of postmodernism.The term "post-nationalism", satisfying the need for distinction, was supposed to stand for the changed meaning of the outdated, romantic national sentiment of the withered ages.

The overlooked reality took a turn quite different from the prophecies of the theory makers. It has become increasingly difficult to regard nationalism as a waning force in the globalized world, as the reality has become quite the opposite. Recent hate speeches and violent xenophobic actions spreading all over Europe have heightened the need for close scrutiny of the sneaky comeback of an old phenomenon with a new face and high adaptability to new conditions.

New theoretical frameworks were put forward to draw distinction between cold and good “civic nationalism”, regarded as approved and up-to-date, and between barbaric “ethnic nationalism”, falling back to premature time.[1] Patriotism, signifying the future-oriented sentiment conceived as a good one, and nationalism, standing for the old meaning of national pride and sentiment, and conceived as the bad one, also fulfilled the need for terminological separation. As for Europe, theorists were ready to apply the bad version to New Europe (the eastern part of Europe), suffering from “ontological insecurity”[2], and as such, serving as a hotbed for obsolete ideologies. “Hot” and dangerous nationalism was routinely connected to the margins, or peripheries.

Anyhow, more than two decades after the Cold War and the collapse of the Communist system, it is difficult to put forward an explanation for the rising nationalisms in the post-socialist countries based on the difficulties of the transition. It is no longer acceptable to locate nationalism at the margins and at the peripheries either, given the fact that normative culture is on the rise in Europe, including in the old Western democracies.[3]Although this process is more likely to sprout in the belated and impaired variation of the capitalist system than in the victorious ones, it has been clearly demonstrated in the new millennium that even the big and rich nations are not immune against nationalism if the cornerstone of their security and economic prosperity is at stake.

Instead of further denial and illusion the focus of theory shifted accordingly, as the phenomenon needed to be explained by theidentification of the compounds of the soil on which nationalism is able to flourish even in the old democracies. Billigelaborated on the nationalism of established nations and democracies, for which he coined a new term: “banal nationalism”[4], offering argumentation for the existence of invisible, naturalized, “unflagged” and dormant type of nationalism, ready to be mobilized if in need. As a bonus, he erases the sharp line between the national sentiments of the great and the small, and between the “cursed” and the “blessed” nations.

As the transformation of the 19^th century nationalism into its 21^st century variant, named “neo-nationalism”,could not be connected exclusively to high politics driven by the state or to supportive state institutions anymore, Edensor[5] put an emphasis on popular culture, and on the mundane, everyday practices and secular rituals that were part of the process of re-shaping and reaffirming national identity. He also sheds light on the barely conscious set of assumptions and activities of the laymen, as opposed to the earlier, more general focus on the official, traditional and historical manifestation of nationalism. Billig’s analysis of „unflagged” (cool and tempered) nationalisms of the established democracies revealsthe tricky nature of nationalism, which naturalizes itself so effectively that we do not even recognize it as such.Edensor,warns us that the mechanism is not to be restricted to the macro level, and to high culture, as everyday popular culture is much more effective in propagating national sentiments. However, they both fail to provide any examples from the region of Eastern and Central Europe, otherwise considered to be the hotbed of neo-nationalism.

The shifting focus of looking at nationalism resonates in the term “private nationalism”, an even more provocative, ill-fitting combination of words with supposedly opposing meanings, coined by the initiators of the present project, which is about making a disturbing point; that nationalism is not something beyond private life, imposed on to the citizens from outside by forces, but very much exists and prospers at the micro level as well. Ordinary people, otherwise good citizens are eager to embrace the habits and rituals disseminated by national education, history writing, and visual commonplaces of nationhood, creatively promoting new ways of worshipping their own “natural” community. Building blocks of nationalism are part of our everyday life, our daily existence, as well as part of our habits, customs and rituals, regardless of whether we notice them or not. Redistribution of national identity is reliant on our barely conscious set of assumptions about those who we do and do not consider beinga part of our nation.

Nationalism in any form is considered having the most visual nature among the different political currents and presents itself in a plethora of vivid images, symbols and myths, to which dreams, fantasy and imagination also contribute. Nationalism speaks the language of images and offer sensual experiences, gut feelings of belonging in the name of praised symbols and signs, moments of the common history commemoratedby monuments and the“homeland”, a sacredspace well defined by borders, for whichthe security ofprivate lives are to be sacrificed. Art and culture are very much part of the nation building process as well as beingthe disciplines that are able to detect hidden elements, to decode messages and to subvert the hypnotic mechanism of how nationalism gets involved with our daily life.

Although some recent exhibitions and collections of essays[6] addressed the urging question of how nationalism resonates in the contemporary art, far too little attention has been paid to the process of inscription, to the daily routine of “privatization” of nationalism, and to how artists observe and comment on it. The recent collaborative project focuses on the issue of “private nationalism” as it is seen from the perspective of socially conscious and reflective artists with critical attitudes in the post-socialist countries and beyond.

Private Nationalism Project, in accordance with the term chosen, does not intend to focus on the moments of high political drama, but rather on the process of how those moments are absorbed and embraced by ordinary people so naturally, and thus concentrates on the solid texture of every day experience and involvement of ordinary people in setting in motion the machinery of nationalism. Our banal clichés, labels and stereotypes about ourselves natural members of the nation and about them who are excluded are to be scrutinized. The aim of the collaborative project is to shed light on the overlooked aspect of daily routines of nationalism, the subtle process of absorption and infiltration of its ingredients into citizens' everyday lives.

Private Nationalism Project is a series of international art and cultural programs supported by the European Union Culture 2007-2013, Visegrad Fund and local sponsors, to be realized as a collaboration of eight institutions from six countries, a team of art professionals, and several artists from Central-Eastern Europe and its buffer zone.

Instead of “canned”, ready-made exhibitions wandering in different parts of the region ignoring the local settings, contexts and priorities, the subsequent shows seek to remedy the problems and concerns of “private nationalism” that is relevant in each of the countries involved, on the base that national cases differ so widely. All the countries have their own recipe for national revival and the outcomes also differ greatly in all the countries involved. Instead of a predetermined generic set of myths, symbols and understanding of nationalism, the project relies on the selective nature of nationalism that chooses its components from particular national repertoires and thus has wide variety in different countries, as even the enemies are specified differently in each culture.If nationalism is about mobilization of masses in order to unify a nation then each nationalist culture seeks out topics within its own available stocks that are capable for fusingdiverse individuals into national unity. Fervent nationalism is always allied to its specific national reading and interpretation of history interwoven from glorious events to be proud of and painful humiliation of the collective with hereditary shame passed from one generation to the other.

Although all the exhibitions will be based on works coming from the same pool of artists and artworks sensitive to the set of related problems in the collaborating countries, each host institution deliversa locally specific sub-topic or approach to the “umbrella term”.It mightextend its scope beyond its borders by sweeping its geographical radius. Following this trajectory, different local settings, priorities and urgencies, as well as sub-regions, zones of local conflicts, political tensions and allied minority questions will be explored. Although, during socialism the national border was regarded as a taboo issue, after the collapse of the Soviet satellite system it came back with a vengeance. In Central-Eastern Europe, due to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with historically mixed ethnic communities, the enemy is easily found beyond the national borders, newly drawn after WWI and confirmed after WWII. Concerning local enemies the latent old clichés waited upon to be mobilized supplying local minorities as specific targets (Jews, ethnic minorities, Roma people, gays), even if the degree and specific target differs in each country. Although anti-Semitism and anti-Roma sentiments are off-color in Western Europe for now, their rising nationalism is triggeredby immigrants with different cultures and religion.

Artworks are capable of interrupting the hypnosis and mass delusion by subverting the imagined naturalness of national identity, and by uncovering the process of the construction of the “other”, which plays a crucial role in building the image of a homogenous nation.However, apart from casting light on conflicts and problems, the other side of the coin will be shown as well: the historical tradition of transnational overarching of the borders, as well as the existence of fruitful and mutual influences in shared and neighboring territories. Cooperation of artists with different nationalities will also come into play, providing arguments and visions to promote peaceful co-existence.

As for the different sites, those with smaller spaces (Apartman Project Gallery, Berlin) are free to embrace experimental works or focus exclusively on specific, locally important aspects. The contributions of sites with bigger spaces will be the meticulous elaboration of various facets of the topic (Kunsthalle, Kosice / m21 Gallery, Zsolnay Cultural Quarter, Pécs / BunkierSztuki,Krakkow / MODEM, Debrecen). Ostrale (Dresden), the farthest site on the West, goes even further by reaching out for artworks produced in and related to the old Western democracies, with the aim to reveal and undermine the deep-seated belief that the fertile soil of nationalism is to be found exclusively in the eastern part of Europe. While Divus Gallery in Prague serves as a kind of flagship exhibition, sending out sparks of the whole project, Ostrale’14 in Dresdenoffers a kind of survey on the issue at hand. Different museum pedagogical programs and joint events are intended to be connected to all the exhibitions.

Parallel to the exhibitions, an international artist-in-residence program will offer 15 artists from all six participatingcountries the opportunity to spend altogether 15 months in four countries, a great possibility for cultural exchange and immersion into another culture. (Organizations receiving artists are: SpaceGallery, Bratislava / ApartmanProjekt, Istanbul /Ostrale, Dresden / AAA/Approach Art Association, Pécs.)

Workshops and an international conference to be held in Pécs (Hungary) will serve as discursive background to the project aiming to unfold the potentials of art in grasping the 21^st century revival of nationalism in the ex-East bloc and beyond.

[1]Michael Ignatieff, Blood and Belonging: Journey into the New Nationalism. London: Chatto and Windus, 1993

[2]Anthony Giddens, The Nation-state and Violence. Volume of Two A Contemporary critique of Historical Materialism.Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987, 218.

[3]Andre Gingrich & Marcus Banks (eds.), Case Studies from Western Europe in Neo-Nationalism in Europe & beyond: Perspectives from Social Anthropology. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2005, 69-196.

[4]Michael Billig, Banal Nationalism. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: SAGE publications, 1995

[5]Tim Edensor, National Identity, Populatr Cultur and Everyday life. Oxford, New York: Berg, 2002

[6]MinnaHenriksson and SezginBoynik (Eds. By), Contemporary Art and Nationalism: Critical reader. Exit Institute for Contemporaray Art and MM-publications, Pristina, 2007; Let’s Talk about Nationalism: Between Ideology and Identity. KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn, 2010; WHW, How Much Fascism?Berger Kunsthall, Norway, 2011; New Natinal Art.National Realism in XXI Century Poland Art. Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 2012

PNP subsequent exhibitions and programs: