pure danger / dangerous purity
In the anthropological classic Purity and Danger (1966), Mary Douglas refutes the essentialist idea of dirt and pollution. She argues that ”we can recognise in our own notions of dirt that we are using a kind of omnibus compendium which includes all the rejected elements of ordered systems” and concludes that dirt “is a relative idea.”
She provides us with a number of examples:
“Shoes are not dirty in themselves, but it is dirty to place them on the dining-table; food is not dirty in itself, but it is dirty to leave cooking utensils in the bedroom, or food bespattered on clothing; similarly, bathroom equipment in the drawing room; clothing lying on chairs; out-door things in-doors; upstairs things downstairs; under-clothing appearing where over-clothing should be, and so on.”
In the third issue of Differens Magazine, we wanted to build on this idea of dirt and pollution, to delve into the nexus of thoughts surrounding purity and its possible dangers. What could notions of national, religious or material purities entail, given that the impure is something ”out of place”? How could we understand spatialities, i.e. national territories, the city, urban districts, our home and personal spaces within such an interrogation?
We have asked ourselves how orders are constructed and formulated in such a way that everything from objects, animals and people to social groups, materials and bacterias are allocated specific places where they are rendered pure and sanitary. We have also asked ourselves what happens when things leave their designated places to become anomalies, and how we best take care of anomalies.
These questions led us to numerous interesting discussions and, most importantly, to the fantastic collection of contributions that we are hereby pleased to present.
The issue begins with an introduction to Lisa Torell and her art, as the entirety of the issue stands in dialogue with Torell’s works. Here, we become familiar with her site-specific approach and her notions of performativity as we approach themes of garbage, care and urban governance. Next, we dive into Olli Lagerspetz’s text on the ethics and meaning of waste. Viktor Engström subsequently presents a ideosyncratic text for the issue, in which the metaphors of sun and light are discussed and posited as an idealistic horizon against the dirt motif. We are thereafter granted access to the innermost rooms gathering dust in Pralin Magazine’s editorial office. As a return to Lisa Torell’s thoughts, Fanny Ambjörnsson then sets the stage for a deeper reflection on the practices and political potentials of everyday cleaning. Following this, Eugene Sundelius von Rosen invites us to a poetic interlude, pointing out and conceptualising everyday objects, sentences and words (which we might erase again). Next, Arild Säll traces the racist lines of purity backwards in Sweden. Along the same critical lines, we then engage with Alexis Shotwell’s text, which examines how ideas of natural purity are constructed. Finally, the issue closes in a playful mood with contributions from the travelling Bergen-based project space NOGOODS, discussing two projects on the theme of cleaning and cleanliness they exhibited in the spring of 2022. Accompanying the text by NOGOODS, we are presented with photographic documentation and poetic material from the two projects, respectively run by the artist Naomi Credé and the artist duo Rubber Glove Dove Collective.
We hope you have as much fun reading the issue as we had putting it together!
The editors of Differens Magazine
winter 22 / 23
editors
Amanda Winberg
Astrid Elander
Johannes Stenlund
Lapo Lappin
Ale Låke
Niklas Kuckeland
sound
Lisa Torell
Noise Reduction and Glitches, Echoes from the Past and Future, 2021 – 2026.
participants
e-print version
Garbage and Care in Public Spaces. Discovering the Art and Politics of Public Environments with Lisa Torell
”As she moved through the city’s narrow alleys, the sound of cans and glass bottles clinking together provided a sensory accompaniment to the work. Take Care of the Garbage exposes as such the gap between the public representation of the city and its unseen workings, and encourages the viewer to consider the impact of identity versus global necessity.”
Author
Lisa Torell
Amanda Winberg
Language
English
WASTE: The Ethics and the Form of Life
”What ‘waste’ is in a given culture is an aspect of its general type of world-view, economy and ecology. In a trivial sense, the word certainly ‘stands for’ something once its context of use is clear; when the background is familiar to you, you can point to objects or materials called ‘waste’. However, the meaning of ‘waste’ is not clarified that way. Rather, it is profitable to look at words and concepts as tools. Like any tool, conceptual tools help us cope with problems. At the same time, they also contribute to the rise of new problems as the tool directs our perceptions and activities in one direction and closes off others.”
AutHor
Olli Lagerspetz
Language
English
Solförmörkelser: Litterär dialektik hos Novalis och Bataille
”Omöjligheten att med ljusets hjälp ta in omgivningen, utan att samtidigt göra våld mot densamma, gör att medlet för att inta måste sökas någon annanstans; dunkelheten och mörkret kvarstår därmed som det enda som kan upphöja omgivningen till ett oförmedlat plan av renhet. Om det litterära fullständiga, i den romantikhistoria som tecknas av Nancy och Lacoue-Labarthe, enbart kan nås genom en fragmenterad, ofullständig form, så kan en liknande paradox sägas existera i den tematiska relationen mörker–ljus hos Novalis: i ljuset är det omöjligt att nå en ren, oförmedlad bild av verkligheten, varför lösningen måste bli att söka densamma i mörkret.”
AutHor
Viktor Engström
Language
Swedish
Om Pralin Magasin och smutsens poesi
”Vi börjar med att bestämma var smuts är, eller? Det är materia på fel plats, enligt antropologen Mary Douglas. Nu är ju text inte riktigt materia, men om det skulle vara det, då sysslar ju redaktören med att skyffla runt, flytta textmateria från en plats till en annan, ta bort, lägga till. Vad som är på fel plats, ja, det hör man ju själv subjektivt. Kanske att redigering är skrivandets hushållsarbete, det reproduktiva osynliga gnoendet mot författandets produktiva arbete. Säger inte detta för att vara martyr.”
AutHor
Ida Mirow
Maria Bodin
Language
Swedish
Kordial mening
[…]
ser du kordial mening
även om det förflyttar sig
glasramen
omsluter glasets form
vi raderar ut alla ord
exempelvis bassäng
kåthet
lavalampa
regn
och reproduktion
[…]
AutHor
Eugene Sundelius von Rosen
Language
Swedish
On the Practice and Politics of Everyday Cleaning
”Services that are not as controversial to pay for are mostly coded masculine, like ‘Of course a man has to come and make a mess with his shoes, not cleaning afterwards, quickly fixing the dishwasher, and we just pay him for that, because we don’t know how to do it ourselves.’ Cleaning, on the other hand, is considered to be something that all of us should be able to do ourselves, because it is something that women do.”
Author
Fanny Ambjörnsson
Ale Låke
Language
English
Rasismen och begäret efter renhet
“Istället för att förneka rasismens del i den svenska moderniteten vill det samtida Sverige göra upp med sitt förflutna, rentvå sig från historien – något som flera förslag om att byta namn på gator och salar vid Karolinska Institutet nyligen vittnat om: rasforskaren Gustaf Retzius, tillika kvinnorättsförespråkare och god demokrat, är ett namn som tvättas bort från gator och torg. Begäret efter renhet, som många under Retzius tid var så upptagna av, har med andra ord inte avtagit i samtiden – men innehållet, själva objektet för ett sådant begär, tycks ha genomgått en radikal förändring […]”
AutHor
Arild Säll
Language
Swedish
Against Purity
”Aspirations to purity are, perhaps, usually exactly what this cleansing-toning-moisturizing face wash offers: misleading ad copy on one level and secret carcinogens as a cell boundary-crossing material reality on another.”
AutHor
Alexis Shotwell
Language
English
Sickly Sweet and Clean
”The disembodied female sounding voice underlines the Western social construction of the female as a sweet pleasurable object for capitalist consumption. Servitude, trustability and an air of purity read into the female voice are highlighted to create the imaginary of a spaceof permission, care and safety.”
AutHor
Danja Burchard
NOGOODS
Language
English
Clean
[…]
Glass break easily
Dreams break easily
Find the bitch, Cindy
Find the devil
Be the witch
Cindereeeellaaaaaa!
Take your mice
companions, all your
bird friends and have a
party
[…]
AutHor
Anna Caroline Kristensen
Astrid Haugesen
RUBBER GLOVE DOVE COLLECTIVE
Language
English
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