In ‘Dream mile’, a video from 2002, the artist researches male performance. The camera follows a young man on a jogging tour along the Hudson River in New York City. But he is not only jogging – he is also loudly singing an aria from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. The young opera singer gives the impression that jogging and singing is joyful and easily combined. He is trying to make it look effortless. Again a myth of power: In a powerful man’s world, everything is supposed to look very easy and natural – no matter how large the effort.
Even if Maria Friberg concentrates mainly on the subject of men in her art, it is also a research dealing with her own identity as a woman. Why do we – both men and women – behave the way we do? Which social codes and conventions lie behind our behavior and shape the way we interact? In our times of constant change, in contemporary art, questions of identity-construction are highly discussed issues.
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