Yes, the cake was a racist stereotype, but…
You may have heard and seen the video on Youtube about the so-called “Swedish racist cake” involving the Minister of Culture. The video has spread like fire through social media and upset a lot of people. Is Sweden a racist country, some would ask? There is also another story behind the scandal that many have missed – the cake was an anti-racist, postcolonial critique made by a black artist in Sweden.
We have taken the liberty to translate an article written by Johan Wirfält, editor in chief at Rodeo Magazine. His article offers a point of view that examines the artists’ intention:
Makode Linde has killed goldfish at “Fredsgatan 12″ (restaurant in Stockholm) and exhibited a portrait of Hitler without a mustache in Berlin. That he now has a performance that makes people accuse the Swedish Minister of Culture of racism and demand her resignation should not be surprised.
Short recapitulation: When KRO (the Swedish Artists’ National Organization) this weekend celebrated its 75th anniversary and World Art Day at the Museum of Modern Art there were an artistic cake party. One of the birthday cakes were baked by Makode Linde, one of Sweden’s most interesting young artists and an avid reactor of postcolonial theory into catchy artwork. So this time – his cake was shaped like a caricature of a black female torso with Linde (who is black) stuck his head through the table and served as head, painted in “blackface”.
All around stood the cultural swedish elite and laughed.
The cake and Linde’s blackface makeup refers to the classic, racist stereotypes. The Minister of Culture attended, she is a racist just like the KRO-stack, then? Well. Let’s take a step back. For what’s happening there, on the 75th birthday party at the Modern Museum?
What is the artwork about?
First, it is a physical part, I am talking about the cake. It resembles a woman’s body and should be cut from the womb and up, linking to genital mutilation. Meanwhile, the caricatured black cake body, become a sort of reflection of a Western view of female circumcision as something exotic – as if women’s oppression would be a specifically African problem, decoupled from the power structures that are less clear but different expression even in our latitudes.
But in addition, Makode Linde has given the “art” a major dimension, a form of postcolonial performance level. This is where I think the real brilliance lies. KRO’s guests is probably one of the whitest crowds of people you can gather under a institutional roof of culture a Sunday afternoon in Stockholm. Every time one of them cut her a bite of the cake Linde screamed – as if he were truncated, piece by piece.
The cake was a racist stereotype, yes. But it turned directly toward one of the groups that historically bears the heaviest responsibility for such racist stereotypes arose, namely the European upper-class unit. What we see in the clip above is in other words, the devastation of a continent – shaped in sugar, cream and icing in a room in Stockholm.
During the day the trap was activated – and with a vengeance. The Afro Swedes National Association requires Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth’s departure, according to chairman Kitimbwa Sabuni the Minister has been participated in a “tasteless racist manifestations.” At the same time, the Modern Art Museum has been reported to the Swedish Justice Delegate by a private person who wants “the people in responsible for the decision of this disgusting stunt to answer.”
It’s strange reactions.
Both Kitimbwa Sabuni and the private person – and the following Twitter train – have obviously missed the anti-racist, postcolonial critical core of Makode Linde works. Linde himself felt pity about this: “Given the poor selection available in Sweden by artists who would define themselves as Afro-Swedes, I would of course hoped that “Afro Swedes National Association” was a little more versed in the art that I do.”
But they have also missed a fundamental distinction: The medium to design something and actually doing it for real. As Minister of Culture, carved in the genital mutilation cake, she was also part of Makode Linde’s performance and the conditions he set for the work. She participated in a context defined, and to some extent, directed by the artist, which is most comparable to an actor in a movie or a play.
Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth is simply a piece of Makode Linde’s major drama. As the Afro Swedes National Association to claim that she participates in a “racist manifestation” is about as intelligent as accusing Bruno Ganz of anti-Semitism because he usually plays a distraught Hitler on Youtube.
No, instead embrace Makode Linde cake performance for what it is. We have just witnessed this year’s biggest Swedish art moment.
Translation from Rodeo Magazine.
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