++++ The fact that the average person in Sweden is a woman may simply have to do with the slightly greater proportion of women in the population. Other features which the average person possesses resulted from purely statistical data and in no way from the frequency of their occurrence. Thus, the age of Marianne, the average Swede, is certainly not any more frequent than other age groups, but lies simply in the middle, at 40, just like the fact that she lives in a city in a two bedroom flat.
By means of a media campaign, the artist Måns Wrange, who was born in 1961, looked for a person who completely fulfilled the statistical profile of his country. Marianne is anonymous but in spite of this she has become a well-known person. In collaboration with a media adviser, the Swedish artist developed a strategy for building public opinion in order to implement Marianne's views broadly. Marianne thinks, for instance, that there should be tax-cuts for solidarity, and because Wrange has invited many prominent persons in Swedish public life to take part in his project, Marianne's opinion on various subjects has been discussed in public.
At the Frankfurt Kunstverein, Måns Wrange has documented his project in the style of informational graphics in a separate room. His work is not so much of an artistic nature, but rather sociological. Wrange investigates models in communication and the formation of opinion and, with his knowledge, he then tries to influence social developments. The fact that to do this he has chosen a figure who fits mathematical criteria but is otherwise completely without contour is highly interesting.
Marianne herself, by contrast, is not at all interested in a cult of personality and does not want to represent her own opinions in public. For this reason, she probably does not like the bust which has been made of her and erected in front of the town hall of the average Swedish town, Simrishamn, in order to promote her future political importance. Indeed, in the exhibition the bust also has a strange role since as a sculpture it suddenly once again evokes the entire approach of the fine arts which in this context seems out of place.
Frankfurter Kunstverein, Markt 44 am Römerberg hoh