Anders Kreuger (ed.): The Welfare State (2015)

“The welfare state is an abstract notion. But also very concrete. Political, but also bureaucratic. What does it have to do with art?

The welfare state operates with regulations, rights and obligations that apply to everyone in the same way, requiring individuals to identify themselves as members of society first and foremost. In this sense, the welfare state is the antithesis of art. Many artists support the welfare state in both theory and practice, and they are fascinated by rules as such, but they have little interest in following rules formulated by others than themselves..

The welfare state is an emancipatory political project, although it was first invented as a way of keeping class struggle and revolution at bay. It is hard to disassociate the European welfare state from the darker elements of recent history, such as militarism, colonialism and the degradation of the natural environment. Yet the welfare state, as a model for social cohesion and political stability, is now gaining ground in new parts of the world, notably in East Asia.

The exhibition The Welfare State does not look back with nostalgia at the welfare state in its ‘classical’ form as a utopian blueprint for an egalitarian (and homogenous) society in postwar Western Europe. It does not invite artists to ‘illustrate’ political and social engagement. But it does ask some fundamental questions. What is the ‘imaginary’ of the welfare state? Does it have a ‘form’? Can it be ‘shown’?”

Contributions by Stephen Willats, Josef Dabernig, Róza El-Hassan, Francisco Camacho Herrera, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Artūras Raila, Kajsa Dahlberg, and Donna Kukama.

With an introduction by Anders Kreuger
Publisher M HKA, Antwerp, 2015
ISBN 9789072828521
139 pages

Exhibition
Distributor

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