SCAPEGOAT SOCIETY including videos by Estonian Mark Raidpere

09.01.2010 - 21.02.2010

norn presents...

SCAPEGOAT SOCIETY including videos by Estonian Mark Raidpere

Open: 9 Januar – 21 Februar, Friday–Sunday, 12–6pm

The scapegoat is commonly associated with ideas of blame, prejudice and visible difference. Its victims tend to be marginalised – pushed to the periphery of society – through the scapegoating process. Mark Raidpere exposes social allocations, conveying a sense of empathy and outsiderdom. His 2003 video Ten Men consists of static shots of inmates from an Estonian prison posing for the camera. With muscles, tattoos, broken noses and shaven heads, the prisoners display themselves as objects of fear but they also evoke pity; forcing the viewer to question whether they are brutal criminals or victims of society.

SCAPEGOAT SOCIETY is a multi-disciplinary exhibition which explores the role of the scapegoat in contemporary society. Scapegoating is a hostile process through which people attempt to absolve themselves from culpability, by moving blame towards a target person or group. This age-old phenomenon is as prevalent today as it was in the times of witchhunts, and is a fundamental part of the human condition. With McCarthyism and the Holocaust being the best-known 20th century examples, scapegoating stands at the core of some of the most vicious acts against humanity.

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