On the way to Gothenburg

 

Presentation by GIBCA Director, Elvira Dyangani Osi

Visit to Skogen

Performance by Isabel Lewis, ‘An Occasion’, in Trädgårdsföreningen

Listening to a dinner conversation at HoW (House of Words)

 

Lunch at HoW with Loulou Cherinet

 

  

GIBCA- The Gothenburg International Biennial of Contemporary Art is one of the leading biennials in the Nordic region, seeking to create a dialogue with the city through art, employing site-specific techniques alongside the readily available art spaces in the city. ‘A Story within a Story’ was the title of the 2015 Biennial and invited visitors to imagine history as an open work that is incomplete and constantly renewed. With a host of Swedish and international artists spread out over four main venues and CuratorLab in town for just the weekend, it meant that there was no time to adopt a slow pace. Reflections on the Biennale could be discussed at a later date and reviewed and committed to memory with the aid of the exhibition catalogue. After a three-hour train journey, a quick trot to our hotel rooms and an even quicker and much-needed cup of coffee was immediately followed by our first engagement- a visit to the GIBCA’s inauguration in Göteborg Konsthall, an exhibition questioning various institutional structures such as the museum, the archive and the canon. Next door, at Hasselblad Centre, a range of photographic and video works showcased personal approaches and archival strategies that raised questions larger than the sum of the individual pieces. Despite the intensity of the first day, some energy in the fuel reserves was saved for the opening party at Folk which continued until…. 

The following day, another jam-packed scheduled ensued, incorporating a mixture of Biennial and non-Biennial related activities. First up a visit to Skogan, an artist-run platform for the performing arts. A little later, we made a brief visit to Isabel Lewis’ ‘An Occasion’ in Trädgårdsföreningen, a large 19th century glasshouse in which visitors entered a dramaturgy involving music, dance and spoken word. Unfortunately our timetable didn’t allow for a lengthy meditative and sensory experience in the deckchairs and we soon had to haul ourselves away to the next appointment.  A short tram ride out of town took us to Röda Sten, a red-bricked boiler house turned konsthall, dwarfed by its positioning beside the harbour entrance under the lofty Älvsborg bridge. The works on display at Röda Sten Konsthall embodied a more narrative and sociopolitical nature investigating ideas of documentation and moments of collective history. Attached to the konsthall, the pavilion House of Words (HoW) designed by architect Santiago Cirugeda, provided a site for a roundtable discussion on the topic of ‘postcolony’. 

On the following day, it was our day to form the roundtable. We returned to HoW to make lunch with artist Loulou Cherinet and to chat with GIBCA curator Elvira Dyangani Ose. On a grey, wet and blustery day in Gothenburg, a communally-made soup bolstered our spirits with the pause allowing for discussion on the Biennial, before we returned north to Stockholm that afternoon.