Curated by:Kathrine Bolt Rasmussen and Katarina Stenbeck

Art historian and curator, Kathrine Bolt Rasmussen, recalls the exhibition in the following anecdote published in O - Overgadens anniversary book: Overgaden 1986-2011 (2011):

During the 1990s and the early years of the 21st century, a noticeable trend emerged for using artistic freedom to address pressing social and political issues such as racism, war, nationalism, economic inequality, globalisation and postcolonialism. In line with this trend, during the time when I was a curator at Overgaden, we instigated several exhibition projects that responded to topical social issues. We did this because we felt there was a need for exhibitions that commented critically on contemporary socio-political developments, and because an exhibition space like Overgaden has the potential to act as a catalyst for debate about relevant issues within society as a whole.

Against this background, Katarina Stenbeck and I curated the group exhibition Danmark 2010 – en vejledning til na- tionen for ‘verdens lykkeligste folk’ (Denmark 2010 – A Guide to the Nation of ‘The World’s Happiest People’), in which we carried out a critical survey of the Danish psyche, as it manifested itself in 2010. The exhibition presented works by numerous artists, theorists and cultural critics from Denmark and abroad, pointing out the glaring disparity between the glossy image that dominates Danish self-perception and the unflattering picture that the kingdom of Denmark presents in reality, with its institutionalised racism, increasing social inequality, repression and erosion of the welfare state. On 5 June, as a prelude to the exhibition, we held the event Vi jubler ikke! En status over nationen Grundlovsdag 2010 (We’re Not Rejoicing – The State of the Nation on Constitution Day 2010), in which various cultural celebrities were invited to give a Constitution Day speech, which collectively amounted to a massive statement of dissatisfaction with the status quo.

The previous year, in response to the increasingly narrow definition of normality that was becoming dominant at the socio-political level, Cecilie Høgsbro Østergaard and I took a look at art and at society’s current state of normality in the less confrontational and more under-stated Scandinavian group exhibition En helt normal udstilling (A Completely Normal Exhibition). The then government’s value-based cultural struggle was the clear expression of an attempt to regulate and alter individuals who deviated from the political conception of normality. The marginalisation of anything foreign, the ‘normalisation’ of Christiania, the removal of the Youth House etc., were all part of this cultural struggle and of the desire to erase any trace of atypical, non-Danish or alternative lifestyles. In a humorous tone, we attempted through the exhibition to question the one-sided images of normality with which we are confronted in public debate, in the media and in political discourse.

At a time when the economic crisis is gathering pace, and when young people throughout the world are demonstrating their dissatisfaction with their governments’ unqualified support for neoliberalism, there is a need for spaces in which it is possible to ref lect critically on social issues. As an exhibition space for the more experimental forms of contemporary art, it is natural to use Overgaden as a space for this sort of critical discussion alongside the many other activities that also take place there.