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In
centrul proiectului artistic al Mariei Friberg se afla
o obsesie pentru masculinitate sau, mai precis, homo-socializare,
un termen inventat de experta In literatura Eve Kosofsky
Sedgwick, pentru a descrie tensiunile erotice subtile
care se afla la baza relatiilor dintre barbati. In fotografiile
si filmele pe care le-a produs incepand cu anii 1990,
Frieberg a cautat cu consecventa sa expuna masculinitatea
ca pe un construct social, un performance, si sa exploreze
jocurile puterii masculine de dominatie si supunere. Incepand
cu Confront Me Back si Somewhere Else, directorul In costum
gri a ocupat un loc central in opera lui Friberg ca un
reprezentant al barbatului universal. Ea incearca in repetate
randuri sa-i expuna anxietatile - sociale, economice,
sexuale, vestimentare. Procedand astfel Friberg ofera
metode alternative de reprezentare a masculinitatii traditionale.
Barbatii lui Friberg nu sunt oameni de afaceri agresivi,
independenti, ambitiosi, competitivi; in schimb ei sunt
nesiguri In privinta cravatelor, si cauta cu disperare
aplauzele maselor; nu se simt confortabil in scaunele
lor, plutesc intr-o mare de spuma, adorm intinsi pe paturi,
sunt dominati de caini masivi, sau, asa cum se observa
mai bine in fotografiie ei recente, se inclina linistit
in copaci enormi, sau stau intinsi pasiv peste cauciucuri
industriale periculos de masive. Apatizand puterea lor
masculina In scenele narative si compozitiile ei formale,
Friberg deconstruieste conventiile restrictive din jurul
conceptiilor traditionale de masculinitate, si multiplele
relatii cu mitul puterii, si ofera in schimb o alternativa,
si indraznesc sa spun o construire a unei masculinitati
tandre si vulnerabile in esenta ei.
Maura
Reilly, Curator la Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist
Art, Brooklyn Museum
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At
the heart of Maria Friberg's artistic project is an obsession
with masculinity or, more precisely, homosociality, a
term coined by literary scholar Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
to refer to the subtle erotic tensions underlying social
relations between men. In the still and moving images
she has produced since the early 1990s, Friberg has consistently
sought to expose masculinity as a social construction,
a performance, and to explore male power plays of domination
and submission. Beginning with Confront Me back and Somewhere
Else, the gray-suited executive has held a central role
in Friberg's work as a stand-in for the universal male.
It is his anxieties-social, economic, sexual, sartorial-that
she seeks to expose, over and over again. In doing so,
Friberg offers alternative ways of representing traditional
masculinity. Friberg's men are not aggressive, independent,
ambitious, competitive, corporate business men; instead
they are insecure about their ties, and search desperately
for applause from crowds; they are uncomfortable in their
chairs, afloat in a massive sea of foam, asleep prone
on beds, toppled by big dogs, or, as is visible in her
more recent photographic works, reclining peacefully in
oversized trees, or passively stretched out on dangerously
massive industrial tires. By defusing their power as males
in her narrative scenes and formal arrangements, Friberg
deconstructs the restrictive conventions surrounding more
traditional conceptions of masculinity, and its multiple
relationships to the myth of power, and offers up instead
an alternative, and dare I say hopeful, construct of a
vulnerable, tender masculinity in its place.
Maura Reilly,
Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist
Art, Brooklyn Museum
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