Maja Hammarén
About Maja Hammarén
Maja Hammarén is an artist and writer engaged in the acting body, the power of language and performativity, collective experiences and narrator positions. In her works she explores art, aesthetics and language as tools for political regimes and economic interests. What languages are used? How does ‘new liberal’ sound? How does ‘national socialism’ sound? And a business company? A PR expert? A liberation struggle amongslaves? What do all these look like?
In her artistic activities Maja Hammarén is becoming more and more interested in the body, the performative, parodies, choreographies, political and economic languages, the writing of history and giving spoken evidence. The body is central, it experiences things. It has an ability that does not have to do with language in the first place. For her performative lecture “A History of Shit” (2011), performed at the Gothenburg Museum of Art and ‘Färgfabriken’ (transl: the Paint Factory) in Stockholm, Maja Hammarén showed how two decrees from the French king in the 16th century prepared the way for the modern town. The uniformity of language and the cleanness of the town acted as a political and economic pioneer that embodied forthcoming historical projects of improvement and classification such as colonialisation, Nazism and modern economy.