Projects 2002

A programme In 2052 Malmö will no longer be ’Swedish’ (In 2052…) tests the possibilities for art to work as a platform and mechanism for disenfranchised communities in Malmö, assisting them in reaching active visibility in the public sphere. It will consist of a series of workshops, seminars and projects developed by seven artists, in collaboration with different citizens and communities.

At a time when cultural diversity is being dealt with politically, as a problem that must simply be managed, or worse, as a call for overt racist xenophobia, it may be in the terrain of art that some more complex responses can be sought. In 2052 Malmö will no longer be ’Swedish’ (In 2052…) is a programme that tests art's possibilities to work as a platform and mechanism for some of the many disenfranchised communities in Malmö, assisting them in reaching active visibility in the public sphere. At the same time, it is an opportunity for artists to assert their own proposals or visions for future society within a real situation. In this context, acceptance and understanding are keywords for both sides.

The programme will consist of a media programme, workshops, seminars and projects developed by eight artists, together with different citizens and communities. The projects will initially be constructed to facilitate meetings between artists and specific groups of local citizens, who will generate the process and contents. Other participants in the programme will be curators, art and media critics and students of cultural production, who will contribute a nuanced analysis of the projects from their various perspectives. The programme was presented publicly for the first time in connection with the workshop Wild in the Streets, organised in Helsinki 15-18 August 2002. Wild in the Streets aimed to establish a discussion on the development of models for interaction between art practice, identity politics and activism. Since then the first project has been initiated by Lyn Löwenstein (Scotland/UK), and will be followed by projects by Yael Bartana (Israel), Esra Ersen (Turkey), Katya Sander (Denmark), Laura Horelli (Finland) and Pawel Althamer (Poland). The selected artists are committed to working within the reality of a given situation, its limitations and compromises, while simultaneously presenting a ’modest’ proposal on the autonomous level of art as a language with which to talk about a given situation. The projects and proposals are likely to raise questions about the city’s identity and the importance of its diverse population.

As a whole, the programme intends to focus critically on projects in public spheres and their relation to a multicultural society. By doing so it wishes to create possibilities for a progressive development of artistic practice, and to open up the debate on the potential function of art projects as effective social interventions. If artists and art itself are to have a significant impact on the future of urban society, then they have to be given opportunities to show the unique qualities they are able to inject into situations of alienation, exclusion or simply difference.

In 2052 Malmö will no longer be ’Swedish’ is a collaboration between NIFCA and Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art.

www.rooseum.se



Photo: Laura Horelli