Solidarity UNLIMITED?
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity


The exhibition space rum46 presents the art project ”Solidarity Unlimited? Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”. This interdisciplinary art project should be seen as a thematic follow-up to last year’s international project Gæstebud - feast/hospitality. With new angles on human relations, we invite a number of international artists, participants and lecturers to place Liberty, Equality, Fraternity on the agenda in the current social and political everyday life in Denmark.

With the new liberal stream from the 1980’s and 1990’s we have experienced an extreme growth of individualistic liberty - maybe at the cost of both equality and fraternity. In Denmark this tendency has led to give and take politics and a give and take community where there is no place, on the face of it, for solidarity in political thinking or in (and between) human actions (Solidarity: A sense of connection and sympathy with, and will to help or support, others = cohesiveness).

This is a political tendency/development which we see not only limited to Denmark, but also one which occurs in a long list of other Western countries. ”Solidarity Unlimited? Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” is an attempt to establish a counter-representation or a counter-publicity to the new liberal tendencies: meaning an opposition to the current, dominant political situation.

The democratic society is originally based on the principals of liberty, equality and fraternity (solidarity) - however difficult they may be to unite. Without the democratic community, democracy will break down. With a ruling give and take politics and a give and take community, the spontaneous[1] liberty or the spontaneous community disappears; one becomes included or excluded in a community dependant on what one, as a human, has to offer, or from which cultural, ethnic, religious and social background one comes. With the project Solidarity Unlimited? Liberty, Equality, Fraternity rum46 aims to make the notion of community topical and discuss the possibilities of a more spontaneous and open community which is based on diversity and acceptance of both (dis)unity and non-identical equality.

We wish to reestablish, reflect on and constantly challenge the distribution of the Trinity of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, in a dynamic and attentive co-existence, where contrast and differences can be a supplement to equality and a possible breeding ground for a more spontaneous community.[2]

The art project is an expression for the understanding of art as social communication. It is not the form which is relevant in this connection, but a practice which can put societal problems in play. The artists, participants, and debaters involved show new spaces and possibilities of action, alternatives in relation to the society we ourselves are part of, via exchanging and interaction in social, political and cultural fields - with a starting point, amongst others, in the aesthetic.

With the understanding that the open, public space is the optimal meeting place for exchange/communication between partners and opponents in society, we have decided that Solidarity Unlimited? Liberty, Equality, Fraternity will unfold in the city space of Århus as well as in the premises of rum46, which will throughout the period function as Space of Remarks and Comments, where anyone with an interest in these matters can contribute texts, works, expressions.


Artists invited to take part:

Jakob Ørsted ( Denmark )
Brett Bloom ( USA )
Section8 ( USA )
Lana Lin & Lan Thao Lam ( Vietnam, New York )
16Beaver Group ( USA )
Marie Markmann, Nis Rømer Poulsen, Jesper Dyrhauge ( Denmark )

People invited to give talks:

Anne Sofie Fogtmann ( political science and architecture ) ( Denmark )
Anders Lundkvist ( political economi ) ( Denmark )
Anne Marie Helger ( comedian, social critic ) ( Denmark )

[1] The spontaneous liberty or the spontaneous community should be understood as unconditional liberty or unconditional community, where there is no talk of proviso - as in the unconditional hospitality (Derrida). A thought based on a form of Utopia.

[2] ”... it is concerned with constituting a relation which is not based on identity, and attempting to comprehend the possibility of a community which is based on non-identical equality; that is, where difference is a non-threatening supplement to equality” IN: ”Hæfter for Gæstfrihed” (Pamphlets on Hospitality) by Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen. 

Læs den danske udgave af konceptbeskrivelsen for Solidarity UNLIMITED? Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
Solidarity UNLIMITED? Frihed, Lighed, Broderskab is supported by Århus Kommunes Kulturpulje, Århus Amt, Kunststyrelsen & LO