The Camouflage Society (2018)
Kamuflasjefellesskapet (The Camouflage Society), was summer school for young Oslovians of non-Norwegian descent, organized by Gabo Camnitzer with Mehdi Torkaman at Tenthaus Oslo in the summer of 2018.
Assuming the name of a collective of civilian artists who developed modes of concealment during World War I, participants in The Camouflage Society experimented with modes of transformation, literal and metaphorical, to explore questions of representation and assimilation in Norwegian society. Drawing links between processes of cognitive assimilation and cultural assimilation, the participants unpacked the ways that abstract conceptual schemas predetermine how we encounter difference.
The Camouflage Society sought to expose the false premise of a bounded Norwegian society and to reveal the internal contradictions of the socialization model of immigrant education more broadly. Rather than focusing on fitting into Norwegian society, participants in The Camouflage Society experimented with methods to elude it’s grasp, and exceed the constituting projections of its representational logic.
The summer school culminated with the exibition, We Who Can Transform, at Tenthaus Oslo, featuring documentation from the schools activities, and collective and individual process-based work by Gabo Camnitzer, Mehdi Torkaman, and the participants: Simon Rezene, Wari Paiz, Hamza Mohamed Ali, Farrah Algul, Huda Algul, and Maha Algul.
Password: tenthaus
