Text from the exhibition catalog of the Solo-show THE WAY OF THE FLAG – 17, LORDI HARDROCK HALLELUJAH, Curated by Aria Spinelli, Gallerie Terre Rouge, Luxembourg, 2008
Where did patriotism go?
Text by Aria Spinelli
In the last years, there has been a shift in our society. New types of groups have been formed, groups of travelers, immigrants who leave their own country for another. With this movement there has been a tendency to study a new kind of consciousness in the world, which is that of being an eternal nomad, with no motherland. Although this continuous mobility is spreading throughout our societies, at the same time while we feel that our own possibilities of moving have increased, we also feel an attachment to our own country.
In a world in which globalization has introduced identical products on local markets, bringing us to have familiar surroundings wherever we go. What does being French, American, Italian or Spanish mean now that the mobility has become part of our every day lives, and we are conscious to be able to live in one city and work in another? Does being patriot of our nation still have sense? If it still does, in which context?
One of the absurdities is how football games, concerts, and events of our free time have enormous effects on our society, as theorized by Guy Debord, in La Société du Spetacle, 1971. Football is not only a sport, but also a social phenomenon, that is declined in various ways in different countries, and has become a major entertainment in the last years. One of the most important sports events ever known, the world championships of football, took place in Germany in 2006. When the teams were on the field playing to win, they knew that more then 86% of the population of their country was watching and was routing for them.
In our time what brings a sense of appurtenance of the groups, is not connected to a political or social sense, but can be seen in entertainment. As Marcel Mauss said in the early years of the century, this kind of phenomena can be taken as “total social fact”. A total social fact (fait social total) is an activity that has implications throughout society, in the economic, legal, political, and religious spheres. That means that, in this case, an entire group or society makes a representation of itself in these kinds of events.
The same happens when Eurovision Song Contest starts. Most of the >>
work
series pippi, annika and linda
the way of the flag - 17, lordi hardrock hallelujah
“laulavat talot” (singing houses)