IN PICTURES / Danish artist dresses her baby as Hitler, exploring the meaning of evil
Exhibit by Nina Maria Kleivan also includes her daughter in costumes depicting Mussolini, Milosevic and Stalin.
By Morten Berthelsen Tags: Jewish World Israel news Hitler"We all have evil within us. Even small children are evil towards each other," Danish-Norwegian artist Nina Maria Kleivan tells Haaretz as she explains why she chose to dress up her baby daughter as the most evil historical figures of the 20th century.
"Even my daughter could end up ruling Denmark with an iron fist. The possibility is still there. You never know."
In the controversial photo-series "Potency," Kleivan's daughter Faustina, then a few months old, depicts such infamous personalities as Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khomeini, Chairman Mao, Idi Amin, Augusto Pinochet, Slobodan Milosevic, and Adolf Hitler. The aim is to illustrate just one thing: We all begin life the same. We all have every opportunity ahead of us. To do good, or inexplicable evil.
"You need to be conscious that your actions have consequences that impact on your fellow human beings. The people I let my daughter portray didn't give a damn about the human cost, the casualties, their thoughts caused," Kleivan says.
"The responsibility is yours alone. You can't throw it away - as a parent, as human beings - and say that you just followed orders."
When Kleivan gave birth to Faustina, her second child, serious pelvic joint pain kept her in hospital for two months, then captive at home in a wheelchair for another four months. Bored out her mind and incapable of accessing her studio, she found a canvas in her newborn daughter. She began sewing small costumes using items at hand, dressing her child up as the worst dictators of recent history, and photographing the results. First was Stalin; Hitler was the last. When her husband saw the swastika armband lying on the desk, he cracked.
"'I'm aware that you're an artist, but this is wrong,' he told me. I've pondered that a lot myself: Could I really do this? I agree it's on the verge, especially Hitler, whom I and most others view as the incarnation of evil. He and Stalin were the hardest to do. It hurt."
And not for nothing. Kleivan was raised by a father in the Norwegian resistance movement who had been captive in a German prison camp.
"I grew up with a tremendous hatred towards the Germans," Kleivan says, reminiscing about how she would, as a child, carry a note in her pocket with the name of her father's prison guard, so that when the day came, she could identify him and kill him. "Even though my father stressed that you shouldn't hate anyone, not least the Germans. Hatred is a dead end."
Kleivan's art brims with references to World War II, often incorporating power and powerlessness, victims and culprits, innocence and guilt. Even so, none of her works have caused as much stir as this, and it's all because of one particular image.
"Nobody reacts to any picture other than the one of 'mini-Hitler'. Even though my generation doesn't speak out about the war, silently our cultural circle sees Hitler as evil incarnate."
But the reactions have been far from silent in Denmark, Sweden, Italy and Germany, where the exhibition has been shown. Especially when Kleivan's Jewish aunt stumbled across the exhibit in an art gallery in Sweden.
"Most of her family disappeared in the German camps, I felt so bad telling her it was my work, because she didn't know, and was sickened by it. But this is not a deliberate provocation, it calls for reflection. Even though comical, you're not supposed to only laugh at these pictures. You need to contemplate them, ponder where this evil comes from."
Right now, Kleivan is doing a piece on Stalin's favorite movie, a "silly, inane comedy."
"When all you see is a picture, Stalin could've been anyone's kind grandfather. You can't see the millions of people on his conscience or what a paranoid, dreadful human being he was."
Whether or not evil is inherent or generated mostly by environment, it lays dormant in even the smallest creature. Faustina is now 11 years old and shows a remarkable talent for playing the violin. Who knew?
A doctor specializing in psychopathy penned a text to accompany a Kleivan exhibition in Stockholm, describing what evil was, its occurrence in men and women (men are more prone to it, apparently) and how it affects us all. Later, he wrote Kleivan that he had been discussing with colleagues whether or not her daughter would sustain long-term mental damage from being dressed up as these modern psychopaths. She wouldn't, they had decided.
At the end of the missive he added a post script, perhaps as a potential future disclaimer, "Nevertheless, I recommend you save this letter."
|
Faustina Kleivan dressed as Adolf Hitler. 'Even small children are evil towards each other.' |
Why Facebook Connect?
Comment on Haaretz.com articles with your Facebook login, and share your thoughts on your own wall.
- Latest
- Most Viewed
- Most Rated
- Open all
thiss iss crazayyy!
a
Inappropriate is too mild of a word. No matter the intentions, children should never be "used" to convey a message - no matter how relevant, how important. There is a world of children already exposed to terrible things. One more really does matter. I hope this lady gets the help she needs.
I think Kleivan's statements on the banality of evil AND the tyranny of motherhood are spot-on. She had a difficult pregnancy & massive postpartum complications; it's easy to see why she'd feel tyrannized, enslaved, by this creature that just came out of her. There's also the fact that babies take over a woman's entire life, unconditionally absorbing all that she gives it = More tyranny. It is not a big mental leap to see why new mothers sometimes DO see their babies as evil and/or dictators (at least for awhile). Beyond that, it's also not hard to understand the more obvious statement about the way Evil was once a baby, too. Hitler/Stalin/Amin/etc. was once a cute toddler, he loved his dog, his mother loved him, he's the same species as the rest of us, etc... even though we might not want to humanize these dictators, by admitting such truths. But we ALL start out this way, innocent naked babies; which uniform we don later is our own choice.
Really? This photographer and parent is worthy of all of this outrage? Please vent your comments regarding irresponsibility and vile parenting to more worthy targets. I think your outrage is grossly misplaced. There are many many many more worse examples of parenting that deserve the focus of your energy.
I'm pretty sure she did.
How many people do you have to kill? I'm sure he's made the quota.
i like it
Ms. Kleivan is right: Evil is a requisite ingredient of human nature. Dressing up a cute baby in the accouterments of recent history's worst evildoers makes that point very well. I'm surprised, however, that a Scandinavian secularist (I'm assuming) has glommed on to this Judeo-Christian idea, particularly in view of her culture's century-long effort to deny it pursuant to their three-monkey approach to ethics through tolerance, i.e. see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil.
Isn't it high time that "art" was redefined so that it doesn't give licence to perversion or deviance? Babies are evil? Give us a break!
Should have added Barry Obama for this one too.
i feel pitty for the child. in my opinion the woman's behaviour is just another kind of child abuse.
http://users.skynet.be/djhitler/images/cartman%20hitler.jpg This exhibit is so tired
Even though Charles Manson didn't kill thousands or millions... What he did, made him the symbol of Evil. The deaths of those innocent people, were so horrid. One Horrid, little Male, caused all of that carnage. Yes Evil does have a name Hitler, will always be at the top... I don't think the Artist is sane, for using her little girl, however... Very sick.
Where's little Dickie Cheney?
"Yes, the violin is certainly evil." When played badly, I would be inclined to agree...
# 26 potobac. Why Sharon ? Because he was instrumental in destroying Yamit,(1979) And more recently,evacuation of Gaza of some 9,000 settlers ? If you were to state the country from where you post,I'm sure there'll be plenty of massacres to write about. Why hide ?
...sick, sick.. sick..the poor baby has no say in all of this.
How typical of such liberal-artistic types to exploit their own children for the sake of some obscene 'artistic venture'. Disgusting.
Baby chairman Mao....... (thunderous applause) Such a cute baby.
This "exhibition" amounts to child abuse. It becomes the environmental heritage of the child, something for which she will receive parental approval from the mother & disapproval from the father. Weighted aganst her name, Faustina, it will create a dissonance in the budding consciousness of the emerging adult which is easy to foresee but may be extremely difficult for F. to resolve, After the psychic battle of who knows how long, who knows which direction(s) she will have explored & then finally chosen. Child abuse, plain & simple. The only thing her mother had "the right" to do was something which effected herself alone, such as touching up her own baby pictures & then superimposing the outfits into those old photos using common modern technologies. As for the trendie souls who compare Israel's modern leaders, & even our children, to the evil monsters of history for the "crime" of self- defence, you have merely exposed the evil in your own souls, having chosen it by true free choice.
They're playing in the wrong league. If you introduce small-timers like that , you'd have to make the list long enough to include people like Sharon, and it would lose its point.
This is very creative, and I see the message the photographer is getting across: Everybody starts out in life as an innocent little child... Life is what WE make of it. But, I agree with some other people in the sense that the photographer had to be a little sick to do this. I think she has every right to do it, but it's easy for people to take her intentions wrong. It's creative and disturbing in more ways than one. Where do we draw the line?
children learn from elders how to act and behave . although children are innocent creatures , they can be deadly at older ages . did u forgett the pictures of israeli children signing and writing on big bombs and shels before these bombs were thrown into lebanon during the last war ? these pictures were seen by millions around the globe .
All she (the mother) would have to do is put the kid in a flannel shirt and wait for the kid's face to reveal it's shitting its pants.
I think very highly pf this yound woman. To turn a blind eye the the possiblities of our children. Everyone one says "Not my child." I bet the mothers of these famous leaders did not think that their children would become these people. Therefore it is our responciblity to teach tollerence and educate in a non bias way. How? That I can not answeer it is the parent's job
"Whether or not evil is inherent or generated mostly by environment, it lays dormant in even the smallest creature. Faustina is now 11 years old and shows a remarkable talent for playing the violin." Yes, the violin is certainly evil.
....but it is really bad parenting. Hope the poor kid has good grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It would be awful if this silly 'artistic' mother was all he has.
this is the most ridiculous and uninformed piece of garbage I have seen in a while. Instead of perpetuating the myth that "we're all born the same", why don't you (the "artist", here) educate yourself about how, in fact, we are not all born the same, that situation has more to do with behavior than you would like to think, and how privilege and position go a along way toward influencing what someone eventually becomes. This is nonsense and seems to be really just a chance to pretend to create something "controversial", spend time with your kid, and write it off on your taxes, if that is even allowed in Denmark. Before you comment on human behavior, it is best to actually read about it, versus shooting from the gut and repeating the same old tired-out lines. Oh, yeah, the concept of evil is, by definition, relative. Your argument is invalid.
Corie lost. It is no longer newsworthy. Can't defame the IDF. The IDF is not at fault.
When will these money grubbing sensationalists posing as "artists" be denounced by the public. They play with "sensitive" issues like manure for their bank account gardens.
in my opinion such a thing is also some kind of child abuse.
in my opinion such a thing is also some kind of child abuse.
Though I agree with the aim but I disagree with making a kid wear these clothes for public exhibition without their consent. I dont have any problem with anyone wearing swastika or star of david etc or looking like Hitler, Stalin or Aerial Sharon etc. for their personal choice. But IMO babies who cannot consent should not be allowed as exhibition me thinks.
How can You claim it as funny? I don't really think this is funny. It's pretty serious because she's showing the truth about human nature. We are born free but with some predisposition (of course not only this influences our mind) and later we can choose if we will behave moral or immoral. I cannot say bad or good cause nothing is black or white and this is the same - nothing is simply good or bad. People should think about these pics a lot - yes, contemplate the same like with pictures of Gottfried Helnwein. Parents should think that it's up on them, their responsibility what children will grow up in their care...
This "artist" did not "let" her infant dress up as Hitler, Stalin ad nauseum. Rather, she (not the infant) designed and sewed the outfits meticulously, dressed the child in them and then photographed the baby draped in the evil she "deplores". She even fantacizes that the baby could yet grow up to embrace evil as her own "free choice". But Mme Artist gives away her primal personal preocupation with evil on its most destructive level when she named her child in the first place. Faustina ? The all-too-obvious connection with Faust, who made his own infamous bargain with the devil, betrays the empty attempts she makes to justify her own delvings into evil at the expense of her infant daughter. This woman is no artist; at best she is a badly twisted seamstress bent on child sacrifice as the price of promoting her artistic pretentions.
MISSING. Two other murderers ! ARAFAT & AHMADIENJAD.
Just when you thought there was nothing more em-bare-assing than baby pictures of you naked on a bear rug -- now baby Hitler pictures. This kid's going to need lots of therapy.
I agree with some of the people here who think that it is irresponsible of a parent to use his or her child in this way. A child is a person and not some prop for artists to use in their exhibitions. However we can at least be thankful that there is no real damage done. Many parents do much worse to their children, without anyone raising an eyebrow. For example millions of children are indoctrinated into the religious belief of their parents. This too is done in such a way that the child is deprived of any choice in the matter. And in many cases that damage is permanent.
I completely agree Ben - the very notion of using a person who's unable to consent or say no as a "canvas" is disgusting to me, nevermind the content which is vile in its own right. Too much gets let go in the name of art today, and this certainly does not slip by unnoticed. Filth.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!
It's very weird to see a cute little baby dressed up as Saddam Hussein. It's an interesting idea though.
To explore the meaning of evil you just have to look at the Nazi Jewish State in Palestine. I see no evil in the pic, it is missing the Star of David the new symbol of Evil.
The article says Faustina is now 11 years old, and these photos were done when she was a newborn, so I think this body of work pre-dates the baby suicide bomber picture, no? These photos are provocative - I'm sure most of these evil people, when infants, probably looked like any other babies. So, are some people born evil (nature)? Is evil the result of childhood environment (nurture)? Is evil a choice we make? Is evil a form of mental illness, in that many people we call evil saw themselves as doing great good? But even if we accept that some (if not all) of these men were highly delusional, none of them acted alone ? the atrocities they committed required the cooperation (willing or otherwise) of hundreds of thousands of people. I wonder how Faustina feels about having posed for these photos, since at the time she was far too young to have offered consent.
personality disorders, all over the world... why are there no updates on the corrie-trial ?
It could easily have been Netanyahu, Lieberman and Yishai, three less acceptable persons from the modern era.
I thought the word is best reserved for the likes of Leonardo,Michaelangelo, Rafael or Van Gogn. How can this be described as art?
Didn't the Palestinians already come up with this idea when somebody dressed his baby up as a little suicide bomber? He had the fake (at least I hope it was fake) sticks of dynamite all around the waist. She really needs to give credit where credit is due.
Mussolini. Hope a Fatwa won't be issued against her (or her baby) for including the Ayatollah. Cute baby, by the way.
they were baby killers also
Stalin. So funny. What a weird woman she is