Artist Gallery

Personal CV

Markus Degerman
Born 1972 in Stockholm

Education:

1994-98, University College of Fine Arts, Umeå
1993-94, Konstfack (University College of Arts, Crafts and Design)
Department of Sculpture, Stockholm

Shows in selection

Solo Shows:

When all is special, The Life Gallery, Stockholm, 2002
New light, Galleri Ynglingagatan 1 (Y-1), Stockholm, 1999
Arbeten som gav upp (sina komplex), Y-1, Stockholm, 1998

Group Shows:

Artgenda, Hamburg, june 2002
Slimvolume posterpublication, Austria Cultural Forum London,
Sparwasser Berlin, 2001
Bevil2, The living art Museum, Reykjavik, 2001
Swe.de tour produced by Riksutällningar -
(Swedish travelling exhibitions) 2000 - 2001:
Uppsala Konstmuseeum, Sandvikens Konsthall,
Jönköpings Läns Museum, Röda Sten i Göteborg,
Västerå Ung Kultur.
Nordic Live Art Festival, Konsthallen, Göteborg, 2000
Silk Purse, Waygood Gallery, Newcastle, 1999
Light Show, Signal, Malmö;, 1999

Lectures:

The Royal Art Academy, Stockholm, 2001

Represented:

S.M.A.K

Stedelijk Museum Voor Actuelle Kunst, Gent Belgium

CV - Uglycute

Uglycute is a Design group formed in 2000, Uglycute is:
Fredrik Stenberg Arkitect, Andreas Nobel designer,
Markus Degerman Artist, Jonas Nobel Artist.

Solo Shows in selection:
Galleri AGATA Stockholm 2000

Group Shows in selection:
«3D+, Swedish design on stage» (Svensk Form and Swedish
travelling exhibitions) Brussels, Berlin, Dublin 2001
«Bevil» Galleri Enkehuset Stockholm 2001
«Stars» Galleri Inger Molin Stockholm 2000
«Homy» Konsthallen i Uddevalla, Uddevalla 2001
«All system go» Visby 2001
«Bevil 2» The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik 2001
«Life Space» The Danish Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen 2001
«Swedish Style in Tokyo» Swedish Embassy Tokyo 2001

Design commissions:
Moderna Museet, Stockholm 2000
Office interionr for Racasse, Stockholm 2001
«After Shopping» Kulturhuset, Stockholm 2001
Sveriges Konstföreningar, Stockholm Art Fair, 2002
Djurgårdsbrunn for Magasin 3, Stockholm 2002

Outline commissions:
Student flats B001 Malmö 2000
Exhibition stand for the teachers union 2001
Info-city, The City of Borlänge and Swedish travelling exhibitions 2001

Lectures:
Uppsala Konstmuseum, Uppsala 2000
Moderna Museet, Stockholm 2000
Konstfack University college of Arts, Craft and Design, Stockholm 2000
ABF-huset, Stockholm 2001
HDK University college of Craft and Design, Göteborg 2001
Swedish Style, Swedish Embassy, Tokyo 2001
Futurniture, Stockholm 2001
Stockholm Art Fair, Stockholm 2002
Röhsska Museet, Göteborg 2002
Interactive Institute, Stockholm 2002

Teaching:
Konstfack University college of Arts, Craft and Design, Stockholm 2001
Beckmans, Stockholm 2001 spring
Beckmans, Stockholm 2001 autumn
Bexkmans, Stockholm 2002 spring

Other Projects:
Design Shows curated by Uglycute and Mats Theselius
Tomelilla Konsthall 2000, Köpenhamn 2001, Röhska museet Göteborg 2002
The Magazine Katsenjammer 5 issues 2000 - 2002

Fashionable resistance

There's a lot of talk about doing resistance, about standing up and being politically committed. But you could in some sense say that it has become the same as to read and then correctly follow the contemporary expectations. After all, can resistance really be 'comme il faut' and in that case, who are you turning yourself against?

The social structure and peoples values have changed since the sixties, but to some, these changes seems to have passed without notice. As if the old struggle between high and low, popular versus high culture still is of any interest. It is probably convenient to believe that it's old men in a Mercedes and high-culture ladies who, in some odd way, personify power and oppression. For others the polarisation has grown into an acceptance; things are what they are and it's OK. But then there are also growing numbers of those who actually try to react, however there's unfortunately among a lot of these a lack of self-criticism. Which is not surprising, it's no news that some sort of ideology usually is developed as a justification of one's own actions and selfish interests. Examples of this are noticeable in the criticism of the mainstream-culture, the sudden tendency to avoid all animal products, in parts of the feminism or in the interests fo the exclusive and the alleged individual.
The question that's coming back is therefore; who is it that this kind of resistance in reality is against. The answer could be: the dumb, i.e. those with less knowledge of what's right and wrong in terms of taste. It could sometimes help to know and then ask some simple questions. Is it really necessary to complain on the so-called mainstream-music and how is it possible to declare that mainstream music is bad or even ugly, which sometimes is written? Is the decision to become a vegetarian really based on a wish to end an oppression, which is even reaching outside of the realms of one's own species? Or is it just an adoption of a trend that presents the believer an inner satisfaction? Is it an expression of individuality to namedrop esoteric record labels? And do we have equality when everybody says that they are feminists?
The hierarchical changes in the sets of values that have taken place, and that probably had their major impact during the nineties, have led to a shift in power. From the fine-culture, the must of a fortune and the old men in their Mercedes to an emphasis on knowledge of contemporary taste, from the bourgeois to the 'noveau-bourgeois'. I consider the concept 'noveau-bourgeois' to be an appropriate term to describe the social context to which you could say that I myself am part of. The context constitutes by young people, preferably living in big cities, who are for example working with advertising, art, design, fashion, journalism and music. They are persons who have the power of the production and the mediation of an aesthetics that later becomes normative.

The class of the 'noveau-bourgeois' could also be said to be the class of counter-culture, and that is something completely different from sub-culture. After all, who is really sub-cultural in a time where you can spot people in their forties, all dressed up in skate ware with key-chains and everything, walking around in some fancy park with their kid in a designer pram? The only sub-culture movements that exist in Stockholm in terms of standing for something that is collectively considered as being the ultimate bad taste and are fought by all institutions are the neo-nazis and also maybe the new candidates in the genre; the Satanists. Anarchism, graffiti, skate, veganism, hip-hop and so on, are examples of counter-culture and therefore possess a different status. It is rather so that counter-culture has become something that is rewarded and supported, that is, a modern radically fit for the drawing room. The logic that follows is; if you're not counter-culture then you're not original and if you're not original then you're common and if you're common then you're uninteresting and invisible. This raises on the other hand the question of who is original in such a context where everybody is an individual.

The anxiety of facing unsympathetic attitudes and being left out, is leading to a longing to belong to a collective, the result is paradoxically conformism. With this in mind, the discussion about resistance should lead an opposition against the correct. This should in other words mean a resistance against the 'noveau bourgeois' context in it self. It is therefore important to have a clear formulation of the contemporary social system. Conflicts, like the slightly terrifying image of someone who's claiming to stand up for the cause of the good but then through his/her actions promotes the opposite, occur when there's a lack of this idea. Resistance becomes a reference among other references that shows that you have understood and are supporting the prevailing sets of values that define your social group. Sets of values, which in one category consequently include an articulation of an opposition and political engagement. The only question is; what do these politics actually imply? It is for this reason important to have a discussion about the results of the replacement of old values with new, especially when these are justified with moral.

Markus Degerman for Uglycute
Published in issue nr 2/3 of the Magazine «00-tal»
Translated from Swedish by Markus Degerman

Obscured by quality

Studies have, not so surprisingly, shown that humans need recreation for their well-being. To seek recreation is to recuperate i.e. a sort of invigoration. It's a lot easier to recover from bodily exhaustion, which is caused by physical activity, than it is to recover energy that is related to one's mental state. What is needed to regain such strength is a variety of stimulation.

Experiments carried out with mice discovered that unstimulating environments have an effect on the brains' physical development. Mice who grew up and lived in small cages, with no possibilities for activities whatsoever, never developed certain areas in their brains which mice
who had been given these possibilities did develop. For natural reasons, no similar experiments have been carried out with humans. It is therefore only possible to speculate on the conceivable similarities of the effects of the environment between the species.

It is relatively well known that people who are in most need of recreation outside of the home are people with monotonous jobs, where there are few possibilities to make own initiatives. This recreation could be achieved by strolls in stimulating surroundings. The city environments best suited for this are, according to Swedish studies, green areas like parks, with a rich amount of symbols and human activity. Symbols and human activity can here be interpreted as different signs, which on a personal level are possible to relate to, and which also contain a clear care. It could for example be everything from vegetation, the city plan to lampposts and sculptures. It has become evident by interviews that what most people appreciate in this matter often corresponds with definitions of quality that have been agreed upon since long ago. It is also known that it is difficult for people with monotonous jobs, where there are few possibilities to make own initiatives, to after the working-day mobilise the energy which is needed to go to such surroundings after the working-day with that kind of contents for a stroll. In addition, the people in this category live in general often far away from the concerned environments.

The social groups that posses the standings to define quality, usually have occupations that could be said to be full of variety and with great extent of individual latitude. It is furthermore not unusual for persons belonging to these groups to be living close to city environments of a high quality for recreation.

Tests performed with the so-called hare-duck head (HD-head), which is a drawing of a head which could bee seen as both a hare or a duck, have shown that, depending on what figure is discovered first, or on what has been told about what the drawing is representing, it is very difficult to see the other figure. It is possible to imagine that the state of things could be the same on the level of how we learn to perceive qualities, referring to the ones that are outside of the basic biological needs like; warmth, food, security, etc, etc. In that case, could the result be that obstacles for experiences that might be positive and stimulating are being made. It seems, assuming this to be true, therefore necessary with a greater variety among the agreements on quality. Maybe there are not yet discovered findings, waiting to be revealed where least expected.

Markus Degerman

Published in «Journal» for Artgenda, Hamburg, June 2002

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