c/o Baltic Art Center

Warte Mal! consists of 16 VHS tapes with interviews with women prostitutes, punters, policemen and pimps. The interviews are complemented by the women’s own Polaroid shots and entries from the artist’s diary.

Ann-Sofi Sidén’s documentation captures a moment in time by observing an industry that has extensive effects on the social and economic situation in Dubi – a city once famed for its spa, but now infamous as a centre of prostitution. In a revealing and veritably journalistic way, Sidén shows the connection between prostitution and an increasingly unstable and disintegrating society. Dubi is not an isolated phenomenon, but exposes a system, a course of events rather, that becomes a typical example among other cities – especially areas in Eastern Europe.

The work, which was shown for the first time at the exhibition Organising Freedom at Moderna Museet in 1999/2000, was widely acclaimed and contributed to earning her a major award of 250,000 kronor from the National Public Art Council’s artists’ fund. Today, three years on, Warte Mal! is perhaps even more urgent.

In addition to Warte Mal!, a selection of photo art from the Moderna Museet collection will be shown. The selection has been made by the artist Annica Karlsson Rixon.