Pop Culture has always been my culture. I’m one of those who believe you actually can change things also through Pop Culture, for me there is a clear line from Micheal Jackson to Barack Obama. I see Pop Culture as a language which has given people all over the world possibilities to understand common references, re-create identity and make own choices about who they want to be perceived as, non-dependent on given entities such as ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality and class. Add Internet to this and there are never seen before possibilities of co-operating, sharing knowledge to re-writing maps, change structures.
To be a 2FACED1 is a state of mind, the actual expression comes from finding a common denominator among the people I always hung out with. We had a common way of letting our identity depend on our environment, all of us were highly aware about existing stereotypes related to our ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality and class. I realized we were trying to avoid them and sometimes play with them to make people think twice about who we were. So to be two-faced doesn’t mean anything negative here, it rather explain the double folded view you have on identity if you’re not the existing norm in the society. With this double perspective comes understanding also for other peoples situation. To the feet in different worlds, means being able to move between them but also feel rather at home in that space in between. You dare to step out of your comfort zone and become one of the new identities where ol’ categories are mashed up and where rootlessness and non-given identity just means major possibilities.
The network of 2FACED1s includes progressive stereotypophobes with this double perspective on identity. 2FACED1.com is a display-window for this mindset, via two photos it shows one persons two different faces;
Persona 1:
WHAT YOU WANT TO BE
CONSIDERED AS
Persona 2:
WHAT YOU FEAR TO BE
CONSIDERED AS
This leads to a discussion about stereotypes and inner fears of getting misunderstood by the surroundings. Thoughts that every thinking modern day person does reflect upon. We’re asking every day people from an innercity context where old categories as ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality and class are reassessed, why they choose to look like they do. We’re diggin’ deep, peeling off garments, codes and attributes. We’re searching for transnational identities - is the conclusion that we choose whoever we want to be today?!
Hopefully these 2FACED1’s interviews inspire the reader to alternate ways of live instead of recreating stereotypes which maintain present injustice structures.
2FACED1 #5: A Golden Middle Finger on Vimeo 2FACED1 #5: A Golden Middle Finger from 2FACED1 on Vimeo.