The interactive audiovisual installation I en demokrati finns det inte plats för idioter. (In a democracy there is no place for idiots.) put focus on the language used in the political programs of the political parties represented in the Swedish Parliament.
The work of art addresses the questions:
What happens when words become a product as language is used aiming for profit?
What happens when the words are lifted from their usual context and placed into a new environment or allowed to stand alone without any connection to a specific political party? Are there any words which are more ‘attractive’?
Democracy is founded on the assumption that the citizens play an active part and vote who shall represent them and run their country. With the installation the vision is that visitors question and think about on what fundament their own choices are made.
In ancient Greece the one who paid no attention to politics was called “idiot”. The meaning of the word was someone who was characterized by self-centeredness and concerned almost exclusively with private—as opposed to public—affairs.
We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all. Pericles according to Thucydides.
I en demokrati finns det inte plats för idioter was made possible with support from Kulturbryggan Tema 2014: Kultur & Politik. In 2016 a new Swedish version was made and the installation continues to evolve and change.
For more information (in swedish) visit the art work’s Facebook or read the information leaflet i-en-demokrati-2016
CoScene 