Democracy and Desire

Democracy and Desire (also Democracia y Deseo) is an evolutionary exhibition project by artist Per Hüttner that develops as it travels. It has been shown in various public and private venues in Europe since November 2006. The project takes its inspiration from Zen Buddhist Koans by pairing the incompatible words democracy and desire. The project investigates how the intellectual freedom of the mind is connected to, by social order and how the human body can both support and undermine the search for mental and social liberty through social interaction.

The project uses different forms of interactions with the public to change as it travels, drawing on Hüttner's previous experiences with exhibitions like I am a Curator. In the preparatory research for the project, the artist was collaborating with a group of young creators called The Mob working within the framework of visual art research network Vision Forum. They set up an interactive website to collect material from the public and a wide variety of audiences. The website has since been closed, but much of the material that was gathered, is available in the catalogue that was published in conjunction with the second incarnation of the exhibition project.

On November 23, 2006 the first version of Democracy and Desire opened to the public at the gallery Vacio 9 in Madrid, Spain. The exhibition consisted solely of photographic work by Hüttner. But throughout the run of the exhibition, The Mob organized various public events that were open for audience participation; a night of performances with local and international artists like Julio Jara,Antonio Arean, Nuria Mora,Anita Wernström, Jean-François Robardet and Marie Husson; video screenings with video art from around the globe and various semi-private training programs particularly related to gender issues.

The photographic work, that was also the point of departure for the public events, was clearly inspired by the life and work by Francisco Goya both in expression and in content. Hüttner used the contradictory relationship between political powers and private desires that can be seen in many of the great master's paintings and created images that investigated the relationship between us as individual human beings and the interacting systems that surrounds us. In a text dedicated to the exhibition it is stated:

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