Kirunatopia

Coming up in June: Kirunatopia@Bildmuseet

nospam@example.com (Kirunatopia) — 2012-04-13T13:21:07Z

No need to wait any longer: The first exhibition of the project will open on the 20th of June at Bildmuseet in Umeå. Kirunatopia / In the Shadow of the Future will show the works of twelve international and Swedish artists based on the town in transition. The curatorial team for the exhibition consists of Kim Einarsson, curator of Kirunatopia and director of Konsthall C in Stockholm, and Brita Täljedal, curator at Bildmuseet in Umeå.

The Bildmuseet has recently moved to its new location and building within the Arts Campus of Umeå University and is led by director Katarina Pierre since May 2011. It is a part of the University and is administered in the same way as the other departments on the campus, which constitutes an exception in Sweden. The museum is also open to the public. “That is amazing”, explains Katarina Pierre, “because it means we can easily cooperate with the students, institutes or the Art Academy.”

In conjunction to Kirunatopia / In the Shadow of the Future, she is planning a program that includes talks with researchers and theorists from the University about their work in relation to the exhibition, as well as lectures and workshops held by guests at the University or other institutions.

The move of the museum plays an important role here. “From now on, we are next-door neighbors with the Institute of Design, the School of Architecture and the Academy of Fine Arts situated right at the Umeå River”, says Pierre. All of these institutions have separate buildings, but are connected to each other underground.

International contemporary art is the main focus of Bildmuseet. But besides that, according to Katarina Pierre and Brita Täljedal, the specific location of the Bildmuseet should be reflected in the museum’s program.

Trainspotting

nospam@example.com (Florian Zeyfang) — 2012-01-23T12:46:30Z

Soon enough the trip felt like being a trainspotter's endeavor: Just five minutes after getting away from the residence house I stopped again, pulled the camera and tripod out of the car to film a long line of iron ore carriages, whose load emitted steamy clouds into the morning sky. The sun had not risen yet, but the light, as all North nerds know, is the most fantastic during dawn and dusk. So I started a short but intense trip with cold feet.

Short the trip would be since dusk arrives at 1 p.m. and it is light till maybe 2 p.m. By that time I wanted to be in Narvik already, following the railway line that connects Kiruna with Narvik. Initially I wanted to be on the train – imagining it might rise even higher through the last part towards Narvik than the much newer street that follows the tracks otherwise. But then I realized that taking pictures out of the wagons would just not capture the train itself. One would anyway be on the passenger train, one of two day-to-day, that they want to get rid of as soon as possible to put even more ore trains on the schedule.

The train it is that makes Kiruna possible – maybe even more than the mine (according to Lennart Lantto, who was again of great help). To begin with the invention of the train in England and the giant task, undertaken by British workers, of laying tracks for a railway through the mountains from Narvik to Kiruna, the iron ore could finally reach the world market: Narvik is the closest ice-free harbor. The Gulf Stream keeps the waters from freezing, meanwhile the sea is closing on the Swedish side, in Luleå.

If this sounds like an advertisement story for the exploitation of Northern Europe, I cannot really help it. I feel like caught into the fascination of these ventures: the work, through summer and winter, laying out tracks; just as the mine, the omnipresent humming and the metal bangs, the lights in the winter darkness, the steams, the giant destruction of land caused by the breaking down of the earth into the mine closing the tunnels, when they are empty and left by the machines. And the history with its dark parts: The ore was shipped to England and Germany, firing WW II, until the Germans conquered Norway. From there on tons of ore were shipped to German steel mills and, I imagine, used in the process to built giant battleships like the Tirpitz, which than steamed towards North again to take part in the “defense” of the long Norwegian coast and especially Narvik. Only to be brought down in no time by English ships and planes: The one and only trip of the Bismarck took eight days and cost 3.500 sailors lives. That way the ore returned to the North and formed a giant coffin for thousands of soldiers on the bottom of the sea.

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Creative Construction Works: The Kirunatopia Conference in Stockholm and the New Museum in Umeå

nospam@example.com (Kirunatopia) — 2011-11-05T10:03:00Z

Ten months after the first collective visit to the city of Kiruna, all participating artists have gathered again for a conference in Stockholm. By now almost all the residencies have taken place. The artists have experienced the remote place once more, but this time on their own. The meeting provided a space for sharing and discussing research and impressions as well as presenting their ongoing working processes. Present at the conference along with the artists were Kim Einarsson, curator of Kirunatopia, Rainer Hauswirth, director of the Goethe-Institut in Stockholm and initiator of the project as well as two guests from Umeå, director Katarina Pierre and curator Brita Täljedal from Bildmuseet, which will move to its new location and building within the Art Campus and show the first exhibition of Kirunatopia in 2012.

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Old Men and Pieces of Iron Ore

nospam@example.com (Geir Tore Holm and Søssa Jørgensen) — 2011-10-11T08:57:52Z

Søssa Jørgensen and Geir Tore Holm
Kiruna May 20 – 27 and October 5 – 8, 2011

Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara

Searching for the first piece of iron ore brought up in daylight by LKAB.
Searching for the oldest living former employee of LKAB.
Guided by the Kiruna artist Agneta Andersson.

Meeting: Caroline Mäkitaavola at Kiruna Lappland Turistbyrå, Dan Lundström, Bolagshotellet/ LKAB´s Art Society, Peter Stenberg, Hjalmar Lundbohmsgården, Agneta Andersson's parents Elsa Mattsson (in Spottkoppen, architect Ralph Erskines block of flats in Kiruna) and Oskar Andersson (in the village of Puoltsa), employees at Skatteverket (The Swedish Tax Agency) and Svenska Kyrkan (The Church of Sweden), retired LKAB worker Bengt Jernelöf and reindeer herder/musician Lars-Anders Kuhmunen.

Kiruna City Hall by midnight in May

Since the mining company Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB was established in 1890 the development of the city of Kiruna in Northern Sweden has revolved around the success of the mining company. Kiruna has been in ongoing transition from the first piece of iron ore brought out of the nearby mountains, Luossavaara and Kiirunavaara (in Sámi language Luossavárri and Gironvárri, The Salmon Mountain and The Ptarmigan Mountain).

Landscape with Sámi person, LKAB Info Mine

As a mining city, Kiruna is a melting pot for numerous interests: making profit, working, living, the environment, the government, identity etc. Different views on the utilization of natural resources have been staged on the great mountain plateaus as if they were battlefields. The mining industry is linked to the colonialization and explotation of the area as well as is connected directly to the growth of Sweden as an industrial nation. The mine provides for the country as it builds its economical power, and position on labor, welfare and democracy.

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After Lina Issa's Happening: A Review

nospam@example.com (Kirunatopia) — 2011-09-19T08:28:00Z

Draggkamp | Tug of War Happening

On the 8th of September 2011 at 17:00, 250 inhabitants of Kiruna created a red rope spanning the 3 kilometers estimated as the ‘crack line’ that will occur in 2012 caused by the Iron mine’s proximity to the city.
This rope was made out of personal red pieces of clothing that the participants brought with them. As the rope was formed, memories of the place where the participants stood and that will no longer exist in the near future were shared. A picture of everyone’s feet was taken and the participants were divided into teams who then played the ‘rope pulling’ game ‘Tug of War’. Drinks were served after the happening.

This crack line will separate one of the oldest parts of the city (including the Hjlmargarden, the LKAB hotel, the railway station) and many residential buildings from the rest of Kiruna. In this Happening, the people formed a collective body and stood at a symbolic spot.

How would it be to physically confront the crack?

The people engaged in the ‘rope pulling’ game were invited to reclaim their role in the political economical push-pull game that will decide the future of their town.

Will the crack be the cause of a crack in the memory and history of the town?

Press and Documentation

The Swedish regional newspapers NSD and Norrbottens-Kuriren were already reporting on the Happening before it took place. When Lina Issa came to Kiruna for the first time, as can be read in NSD, she was surprised by the reticence of the inhabitants when it came to the moving of their city and their feelings connected to this future. Everyone referred only to the economical and political consequences of the moving and she noticed a feeling of tiredness around the issue.

That is why Lina Issa wanted to create a chance for the people to talk about their memories, their future and their feelings; to be part of the process and not only to wait until somebody else decided about the future of the town. Lina Issa did not intend to tell people what they had to say or feel. She wanted to establish a space and a possibility for them to both mentally as well as physically feel the changing. Furthermore, she was hoping by doing so to activate reflections and discussions.

To read more about Lina Issa’s thoughts and motivations click here or continue reading for more information, photos and an audio sample!

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Flying into the Zone

nospam@example.com (Ingo Vetter) — 2011-09-02T06:25:00Z

Test flights with an airship in the Swedish archipelago

After months of preparations and many tests during summer, I arrive in Kiruna for a week of investigation and production. My plan is to film the remaining traces of the former industrial and residential area "Ön". In the 1980’s this was the first part of Kiruna that disappeared behind the fence: the border to the un-accessible deformation zone. I have two cameras mounted on a radio controlled airship and will fly this vehicle into the zone during the coming days. The airship proved to be quite stable when there is no wind, but gets almost uncontrollable with a single air current. It is more like the opposite of sailing and I will have to wait for the calm hours of the day. The weather expert at the Esrange Space Center nearby recommends the early morning hours as most likely to be windless. But I am very nervous to lose the equipment and the video takes all at once.

I arrive Sunday evening at the artist residence in Kiruna and prepare for the next day. The residence is a corner house on the inner-city ring road and during the evening and night I become familiar with the local pastime of endless car cruising. With modified or just cut-off exhaust systems and nervous feet on the gas pedals, the car drivers wait at the traffic light in front of the house: vroom, vroom, vroom... This will be the constant soundtrack of my stay and it helps me to stay awake. The next morning, I get up at 5 and check the weather conditions: 5 degrees Celsius, it's raining and already a bit windy. It’s too late, I will have to get up even earlier. There is an enormous amount of traffic as the shift begins at the LKAB mine: vroom, vroom, vroom...

Cruising with Agneta

¨

Agneta Andersson comes and helps me to drive all the equipment to a rented garage close to the fence and Ön-area. It's at Ullspiran, a 1960’s residential area which will be torn down in 2014 for the city's ongoing transformation. I spend the day building the airship, checking out the best film positions and picking mushrooms. The forests are full of appealing mushrooms and to my great surprise, nobody seems interested in them. I pick "blodriska", a spicy mushroom, which is a delicacy in Spain but not so popular in Sweden.

Tuesday morning I get up at 4. I am not used to getting up this early and feel very dull and tired. I look out of the window for a long time: The dawn has broken, everything is soaking wet from the night’s rain and the clouds cover the waste rock hills of the mine. But it's almost calm, only tiny movements in the air. Still at the window and hesitating, a dark blue Mercedes limousine shows up at the traffic light: vroom, vroom, vroom... I remember an interview with Lars-Eric Aaro, the vice-president of LKAB, where he talks about core values of managing and even mentions the classic "to come first and leave last". When the lights turn green and the V8 accelerates with an energetic snarl towards the mines port, I put on my rubber boots and leave for the garage at Ullspiran.

The first flights are going well and I get some close-up footage from the foundations and the overgrown paths inside the zone. Cracks and holes are visible, but I don't dare get to close to the big deformations. The wind conditions are too unstable and I fight with my remote control to get back the airship safely. After an hour, all the battery packs are empty and I'm totally exhausted. It starts raining again and gets difficult to maneuver the zeppelin back to the garage. At 7 I'm back in the flat again, happy and wet to the bones.

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Only Two Weeks Left: Join the Event of the Year in Kiruna!

nospam@example.com (Lina Issa) — 2011-08-25T08:18:00Z

On the 8th of September 2011 at 5,00 pm 800 of Kiruna residents will gather to form one long red rope! The rope marks the cracking caused by the iron mine and which are marked on the city planners maps, from the Railway station to Ullspiran. Everyone brings along red pieces of clothes or fabrics that can be tied together into a rope! The rope will be used for the game “Tug of War” and is an invitation to the people to reclaim their role in the political and economical pushing and pulling that will decide the future of their town.

Motivation and Context

The idea started after speaking to a number of people in Kiruna and realizing that they speak about the crack(s) that the mine will create through the city as something abstract: something far away from where they are or will be when it happens. They are numb and tired regarding the different narratives how the moving of their city. On the other hand, the city planners and LKAB have a very concrete red line tracing this area in all their reports and are aware that it will happen very close to many people.

So I asked myself: How would it be to physically confront the crack? To physically experience its scale and the territory it covers and transforms?

How would it be to take a moment alone and collectively to stand at the separating line between the old city and the new one- to take a moment to consciously realize that space and reflect on what it means- the space it occupies in the memory and in the future of the city and the inhabitant’s life?

What does the crack symbolize? Will it be the cause of a crack in the memory and history of the town? Will it divide people? Will it empower some and marginalize or exclude others?

Like the body of the rope between the two teams playing Tug of War, the people of Kiruna are tossed back and forth between the agenda of the political parties and the city hall, and that of the mining company LKAB.

The Happening wants to contextualize itself within those complex tensions, and uses a simple form- a game that the people can easily take part in and make their own. This allows the different layers at play to unfold, and to position the people playfully on an active conscious ‘lack of distance’ from their reality. It would open a possibility to negotiate different forces, bodies, and forms of work in a ‘workers town’ and question all the multiple narratives and interest.

You´ll find more information on Facebook.

Off the Beaten Track: My Kiruna Tour

nospam@example.com (Boris Sieverts) — 2011-07-22T07:03:00Z

Two options for Kirunatopia came forward through my experience and perspective as a tour guide:

The city currently functions almost exclusively as a hub for a kind of tourism that does not apply to Kiruna itself: it provides the airport, the hotels and the booking centers for trips and stays in the mountains, for seeing the northern lights, the ice hotel, the space station, the reindeer and so on. I think the city of Kiruna possesses more besides all these “satellites” and has its own exciting urban landscape. The view from Luossavaara looking over the hills, valleys and the city extending towards the canyon of the mine is one of the greatest urban panoramas I know. I walked around the Kirunavaara one day until shortly before reaching the exit of LKAB . There I was “accompanied” by the guard for the last portion of the journey. It was a fascinating walk!

When approaching Kiruna by plane over the ice and fields of snow, the southern slopes of the districts of Triangeln and Bolaget appear almost Italian. This isn’t a part of the day-to-day experience or vista seen by an airline passenger. I could continue making a list of the highlights of Kiruna itself, but a tourism guide that warmly recommends the experience of these beautiful sights to visitors of the city is nowhere to be found. I would like to submit a proposal to the city of Kiruna for the creation of a Kiruna tour that could be included in the standard tourist program.

This tour could, for example, consist of picking up the passengers at the airport and taking them over frozen lakes and swamps to Lombolo. It could then approach the foot of the Kirunavaara mountain and circle it clockwise providing spectacular views through the canyon onto the city. The tour would then go into the tunnels of LKAB on the west side of the mountain and reappear out of the mountain on its east side facing the city. The tour would exit the LKAB area through the main entrance to reach the city center. There the tour would get a view over Sandstenberget into the never-ending woods and mount to the crest of the Luossavaara on its eastern side. From the top of Luossavaara, one can see everything that has been crossed so far in the tour and get a spectacular view of the city, which is at one’s feet and which one now understands so well.

Continue reading to get to know more about the second option...
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“Focus on the Process” – Curator Kim Einarsson about Images of the North, Object-oriented Art and Her Work for Kirunatopia

nospam@example.com (Kirunatopia) — 2011-06-16T08:26:00Z

How did you get involved in the Kirunatopia project? How did it start?

The framework of the project was already defined when I was invited to it. It was initiated by two artists and professors at the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts: Ingo Vetter and Florian Zeyfang, together with Rainer Hauswirth, director of the Goethe-Institut in Stockholm. Florian Zeyfang and Ingo Vetter had done a workshop with their students in Kiruna in 2008 about the moving of the city and its implications. Rainer Hauswirth came to Sweden in August 2008 and got interested in the special situation of Kiruna from the very beginning of his stay. He had the idea to develop a residency and art project with international artists there. When all three first met at the opening of Florian Zeyfang's show "Slow Narration Moving Still" at Umeå Bildmuseet in February 2009, they decided to collaborate and the project was born. But the situation was still very open when I was invited, not much was predecided on how the project should actually be performed.

Was that a good moment for you as curator to join?

For me it was very interesting that there was no predecided concept for the project since that allowed us to investigate it together. Of course Kirunatopia had a well-defined framework built around the place of Kiruna itself, but as for the rest of it, the project was open. That was the basis for Kirunatopia and it intrigued me a lot from a curatorial standpoint.

What was the particular situation of the city of Kiruna at that time according to you?

In the beginning, our focus was very much on the moving of the city. But after being there myself in June last year, and then going up there again with some of the artists in December, I think the focus turned much more to the narratives and the history of Kiruna.

What are these narratives? What is so exciting about Kiruna?

What struck me was that we got told so many different and contradictory stories. For instance those regarding where the city is moving as well as about the history of the place and the relationship between LKAB, the municipality and the inhabitants. Growing up in the south of Sweden, the image of the north is either non-existent or very exotic and based on a lot of fake projections. In tourist information, Kiruna is associated with sagas, nature, reindeer and northern lights. But once you are there, there are other strong narratives that strike you: the political narratives and events like the big strike in the Seventies, the establishment of the Sami Parliament and so on. Kiruna reminds you about a lot of the things that were intentionally left out of the official Swedish history.

The narratives of the city might be invisible to most of its visitors. Is there anything that distinguishes Kiruna from other Swedish cities that you can you actually see?

What is impressive, when you go there in summertime, is of course the landscape and the light – the tourist information is not lying! The sun never goes down in summer and the landscape is very different from where I live in Stockholm. But this is of course something you find in a lot of cities far north. But what is significant for Kiruna is the dominance of the mine, visually, physically – you can even feel the explosions at night time – socially, economically and historically. I’ve never been to a city with a similar relationship to a company. Of course there are places where one industry dominates the whole area, where you see logos all over a city, but in Kiruna enormous piles of by-products are part of the skyline.

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Swedish Newspapers Report on Lina Issa’s Happening in Kiruna

nospam@example.com (Kirunatopia) — 2011-05-25T07:26:00Z

Lina Issa’s upcoming Happening taking place in Kiruna this September has already gained some Swedish media response: The regional newspapers Norrbottens-Kuriren and NSD have reported on her art work taking place along the city’s crack-line. Issa’s Happening, which will be performed with the help of about 800 people living in Kiruna, takes the form of a community tug-of-rope. The artist will gather people in the “sprickzon”, the part of the city where the crack becomes visible, where they will face an area that will no longer exist in the future of Kiruna. Issa aims to make room for a discussion about memories as well as the future of the city through this Happening. As can be read in the articles, she wants the inhabitants of Kiruna to get the chance to participate in the city’s changes and movement.

Happening in Kiruna in September 2011

nospam@example.com (Lina Issa) — 2011-05-17T20:02:49Z

I am organizing an outdoor Happening for around 800 people living in Kiruna in September 2011.

The Happening would take place on the 2,5 km first estimated as the ‘crack line’ that would be caused by the mine. This crack is detected in all maps and reports about the transformation of the city. It would cause a separation between one of the oldest parts of the city, including the Hjlmargarden, the LKAB hotel, the railway station and many residential buildings, and the rest of Kiruna. The people participating in the Happening will be a mixed group of all ages, gathered from existing teams and groups (schools, companies, clubs, etc.) as well as individuals.

The crack will cause a separation of the city

The Happening will take the form of the people of Kiruna forming a 2.5 km rope along this crack line, made out of red pieces of clothes that they bring with them. They will engage together in this activity and will form a collective body at this geographical but also symbolic spot where no one will be able to stand in the future. This moment points to a moment which will be relevant in the history and the future of their town.

People of Kiruna forming a collective body at this symbolic spot

The line of people will be filmed from the sky as a collective memory photo, but at the same time, the people participating will also be asked to take a picture of their feet at the place they are standing with their mobile or camera. These photos will be transformed into a long series that will travel to different exhibitions.

How will it be to physically experience the scale and territory of the crack? How will the crack change the city? Will it also divide different groups of people living in the city? What will the crack mean for inhabitants and for visitors? What will it symbolize? How will we talk about it in the future? How will we remember it, and the time before?

Feel free to contact me if you want to participate or have questions: dragkamp.kiruna@gmail.com
Or take a look on Facebook: Dragkamp Happening Kiruna

Continue reading for the Swedish version...
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Photo of the Day

nospam@example.com (Boris Sieverts) — 2011-04-30T17:59:00Z

Photo of the Day

nospam@example.com (Boris Sieverts) — 2011-04-25T06:25:00Z

Mechanisms of Memory

nospam@example.com (Ingela Johansson) — 2011-03-30T12:38:00Z

I just returned from Kiruna. Here is what I have in mind so far:

My research for Kirunatopia takes its point of departure in the art collection and other culture works that was integrated in, or filtered through the Great Mining strike in Sweden, Kiruna, Malmberget, Svappavara 69/70. I am in the process of revisiting the mechanisms of memory and history by interpreting the private and public archives so as to reread the social history represented by the documents, protocols and analogue tape recordings etc – all of which is material that will enable me to explore the ideology and values inscribed in the art collection. Stories are being retold from individual and collective memory banks as a means to investigate speaker positions, especially in the cases where testimonies are conflicting. With my study, I also propel questions of whether individual and/or collective experiences of government interference and public opinion of the strike are being reflected into the public history adequately or will continue to form an alternative history.

Forty years have passed since the strike and there are stories that are still not being revealed. Stories that haven’t come forward, which, in a way, is prolonging the potential of the hidden or the unrealized to enter the public. These issues have functioned as a suspension of the archive. “The deciphered text itself already offers an explanation of itself" as said by Derrida.

Photos of the Month

nospam@example.com (Boris Sieverts) — 2010-12-29T16:13:00Z

2010-12-14

2010-12-15

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