Artists and Projects

Fittja Open as an opportunity to practice the logic of public art within the notion of communication and multiculturalism.

Multiculturalism or cultural pluralism is a policy, ideal, or reality that emphasizes the unique Characteristics of different cultures in the world, especially as they relate to one another in Immigrant receiving nations.

Sweden is one of the few countries in the world that practices Multiculturalism.

The denunciation of multiculturalism by the far right politicians, British,German and French premiers between late 2010 and early 2011 would have made more sense if European multiculturalism had actually ever existed.

This attitude assume us that multiculturalism was the best and only way of relation between different culture in divers societies and when it doesn’t work it means the idea of divers society is changed.

Right now it is not very surprising that the notion of old definition of cultural communication is renovated; the ideas such as Melting pot and assimilation that has a deep history of racism in the European countries.

Lets be honest, as an artist who works in the field of public art and communication, I have found the discourse of multiculturalism very problematic. In fact the practice of Multiculturalism in Sweden especially in Stockholm neither help the notion of co existence nor the open society. The best example is Fittja. The suburb recognized as a multicultural place in the realm of Multiculturalism. the main problem in this case is the relation between different parts of the city which in this case almost doesn’t exist.

"Fittja Open" is a brilliant concept in order to invite others to the multicultural environment or in order to bring Fittja to the center of the city, which as a matter of fact is if anything multicultural. I therefore see this as an opportunity to present (and rethink) the idea of multiculturalism as an already extinct idea, but at the same time an opportunity to celebrate multicultural society and the notion of diversity as a lung of our life and our city.

In this project I would therefore like to present, two banners at Kulturhuset and Multicultural center that says “MulticulturalISM is dead, Viva Multicultural...”, in order to create a symbolic relation between the lung and the heart of the city and celebrate the notion of multicultural society instead of Multiculturalism.

Behzad Khosravi Noori
Stockholm 2012