A temporary project in public space
August 13–25, 2019
Choreographies of the social features new commissions by Jonas Staal, Shilpa Gupta, The Bridge Radio, MYCKET and Public Movement, as well as existing works by Ingela Ihrman & Maja Salomonsson, Klas Eriksson, Molly Haslund, and Cecilia Parsberg.
During two weeks in August and in connection to Stockholm Culture Festival, the public will encounter a diverse range of artworks such as installation, video, performance, sound, experiences, theater and an assembly.
Choreographies of the Social explores the changing field of social relations. The project is informed by artistic and activist practices that investigate how we relate to one another and to the world around us. The different works address inherent social tensions and the global dynamics of our time.
The 20th century unfolded amidst the unstoppable drive of the modernist project centering on humanism and rationality, to the detriment and subjugation of all other life-worlds. The last decade was marked by the financial crash of 2008, coupled with unprecedented migration caused by unbearable violence against life, and highly disruptive technological impact. The emergence of social movements with transformative power, such as the Arab Spring, Occupy, and los Indignados, was followed by the rising tide of populism and forms of fascism. Even newer movements have appeared, such as the “Yellow Vests,” still unfolding and yet to be defined, and mostly composed of masses of disaffected individuals.
The new global dynamics are prompting quandaries about the meaning of the inherited terms we use to understand society and social movements. How do we relate to one another and to the otherness of the world in this shifting reality? How can we engage with the new narratives of the socialcreated from algorithms and derived from the amalgamationof social media and populism? What role do emotions play in a time of outright digitalization and what are today’s choreographies of power, solidarity, and care? Can we reclaim the imagination about the future to be able to dream of other ways of being together in this or in other worlds?
Expanding on these questions, the invited artists create spaces to train new alliances and highlight interdependencies between individuals and the group. As their works suggest, affinities and the respective forms in which bodies, individual and collective, appear and reassemble, can arise from the shared concern about the ways we participate in the life-world around us; and how through such processes we can transform and equally be transformed by the world.
Curator: Edi Muka
Locations and times:
August 13–17 (within Stockholm Culture Festival area)
Skeppsbron, Norrbro, Strömparterren, Kungsträdgården
Artists and works: MYCKET – Kämpaoke – a karaoke bar with songs that care, Shilpa Gupta – Vi förändrar varandra/We change each other, Molly Haslund – Coordination Models, Cecilia Parsberg – The Chorus of Begging and The Chorus of Giving, The Bridge Radio – Untitled, Public Movement – Emergency Routine
August 13–25
Reaktorhallen R1, Drottning Kristinas väg 51, KTH campus
Artist and work: Jonas Staal – Interplanetary Species Society; installation and assembly
August 24, 11am–6pm: Interplanetary Species Society Assembly
With contributions by James Bridle, Kristine Dannenberg, iLiana Fokianaki, Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei, Sam Hultin, Klaas Kuitenbrouwer, Charl Landvreugd, Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman, Sven Lütticken, Felicity Scott, Anton Vidokle and others.
August 22–25
Weld, Norrtullsgatan 7
Artist: Ingela Ihrman & Maja Salomonsson, in collaboration with Ögonblicksteatern – Vilka är ni?; Theater show (8+)
Times: August 22 & 23 at 6:30pm, August 24 & 25 at 10:30am and 2:30pm
August 22
Årsta bridge (Årstabron); Can be experienced from places along the water near Tantolunden or Liljeholmskajen.
Artist: Klas Eriksson – Who are ya; Performance
Time: 10pm
Life Choreographies – infrastructures for a livable life
June 4, August 15 and August 21
On three occasions we arrange a program series as a part of Choreographies of the Social. While the social sphere is under rapid changes, the livable life alters within. Life Choreographies – infrastructures for a livable lifeexplores what life choreographies emerge within today’s infrastructures of the social. The program includes performance, film screenings and conversations that expand on the questions from which the project departs. The program is developed by Frida Sandström in memoriam of Alina Popa, in collaboration with Annika Enqvist, Elena Jarl and Edi Muka/Public Art Agency Sweden.
With contributions by Samo Tomsic, Emily Apter, Jason Read, gigi Argyropoulou, Malin Arnell, Heba Amin, Ayesha Hamed and mari w Horn.
