Difference on display

Technological progress offers a host of opportunities for people of all sorts, shapes and sizes. Yet everything in our society seems to be dominated by an urge for uniformity. Commerce and the media increasingly dictate how we look at ourselves and at others: perfection is the norm. But what is that norm and who actually meets it? Where do we draw the line? At a facial wrinkle, a depression, at a visible prosthesis, the taking of pills to increase intelligence, at drastic cosmetic surgery? The exhibition offers three lines of approach: perfectibility, consumer culture, and man and technology. Artists create space for diversity with humour and insight.

What is normal and who decides that? This question also serves as the guiding principle for the publication. Difference on Display questions normality in a society that elevates perfection to the norm, a society in which the market and the economy produce new groups that are needy of care and (bio-) technological advances present opportunities as much as they narrow them down. Disability studies is a young discipline that investigates how people’s lives are affected by multiple and complex representations of normalcy and difference. Real-life cases and personal stories offer novel insights. Instead of objectifying and denouncing the other as a ‘bearer of difference’, propositions are tabled for negotiation and the redistribution of diversity.

Besides these intriguing texts, this lavishly illustrated publication presents work by over 80 artists, including Marc Quinn, Marlene Dumas, The Chapman Brothers, Viktor & Rolf, Louise Bourgeois and Aernout Mik.