"N E W   P R I S O N"
project made for a group show:
SOFT MANIPULATION - WHO IS AFRAID OF THE NEW NOW?
Curated by Zoran Eric, Maria Lind and Enrico Lunghi
Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Dec'08 - March'09

 

The exhibition entitled Soft Manipulation - Who Is Afraid of the New Now?, deals with the new conditions of life today. From day to day, these conditions change, following the trend of accelerated flow of information, capital, and even the people themselves. Guaranteeing safety, providing consumer freedom and transparency of public policy, today's society is really in a state of "soft" manipulation - individuals even if aware of manipulation, do not want to dismiss it so easily. Manipulation suits us, and those who carry it out make us to fear of anything different.

The project "New Prison", by Croatian artist Andreja Kuluncic, deals with the problem of prison, and relations to the prisoners in Luxembourg. In international reports, which follow human rights violations, this problem is mentioned very often, for example:

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT (from 2004.)
(…)
III. "Multifunction" prison and prison staff
32. Luxembourg has one single prison for the whole country, the Centre Pénitentiaire de Luxembourg (CPL). I would like first of all to stress the fact that the material conditions in all the various buildings I visited were very adequate.
(…)
As stated above, the CPL takes in both convicted and remand prisoners, but also foreigners in administrative detention and minors. This situation also causes staffing difficulties.
(…)
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,COECHR,,LUX,4562d8b62,4159737b4,0.html

INFO PRISON (from 2007)
Observations relating to the submission of Luxembourg's 5th periodic report to the Committee against Torture
(…)
2) Unacceptable conditions of detention at the Luxembourg Prison
Centre ('Centre pénitentiaire de Luxembourg') - CPL
(a) Overcrowding
Between January 2002 and January 2006, the prison population rose
from 341 to 735 persons, 667 of whom were detained at the CPL. At
the end of 2006, the figure was estimated to be between 670 and
700. The establishment can only reasonably hold 550 detainees.
As the Deputy State Prosecutor wrote in her presentation of
statistics relating to prison establishments (January 2006),
'the CPL is a hotch-potch prison, containing men and women,
sentenced and remand inmates, minors and administrative
detainees placed in the provisional holding centre. In view of
the CPL's infrastructure and the high occupation rate, it is
no longer possible satisfactorily to keep the various categories
of prisoners or fully comply with their detention regimes'.
(…)
http://www.fiacat.org/fr/IMG/doc/Observations_CAT_2007_finE.doc

Kuluncic interested was how one of the richest society in the world relates to the rights of the disempowered. Throughout her research, the artist has found that in Luxembourg there is a single prison in which together serve their sentences petty criminals, underage delinquents, asylum seekers, people who entered the country without paper and heavy criminals. They are all in the same place, often together in same cells. On this information and on the information that a new prison building should be built, she based her work.

The artist invited prisoners (as she was not allow to organize the project in the prison, ex-prisoners joined the project), architects, social workers from the prison and the organizers from Casino Luxembourg to form a workgroup. The workgroup made (realistic) plans for the new prison building, which then were sent to the authorities whose are in charge of the future prison building. The process as installation organized with a timeline, is exhibited in the Casino Luxembourg.   

 

PROJECT PRODUCTION:
video Camera / editing : Bruno Baltzer ; Drawings : Tom Bleser ; Working group : Bertrand Schmit / architect of the new section of the CPL Luxembourg ; Tom Bleser / architect ; Matyas Z. / social worker at the CPL Schrassig ; Corinne W. / social worker at the CPL Schrassig ; Isabelle L. / social worker at the CPL Schrassig (Service Psycho-Socio-Educatif CPL Schrassig) ; Markus - Sandy - Rudi - Freddy - Mike - Adilson ; Coordination : Anne Kayser, Kevin Muhlen

EXHIBITION VIEW ->