MAGIC AND POLITICS – THE IRRATIONAL AS STRATEGY FOR RESISTANCE at Skogen, Gothenburg, Sweden

MAGIC AND POLITICS – THE IRRATIONAL AS STRATEGY FOR RESISTANCE

Sat 7/3
13:00 - 23:00

Location
Skogen

ANNIKA LUNDGREN, KANSLIBYRÅN & NIKLAS PERSSON

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13.00 – 18.00
WORKSHOP 

Lunch, workshop and discussion forum

Through a series of conceptual and practical exercises we undertake to develop new strategies for political resistance. The workshop and discussions depart from concepts such as the use of abandoned forms of knowledge, the populist politician as illusionist, the irrational as destabilizing element, everyday activities as rituals and the art of doing nothing in a production-focused society.

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18.00 – 23.00
EVENING PROGRAM

Dinner
Artistic presentations by Annika Lundgren and Kanslibyrån
Socializing time & bar

JOIN FULL DAY PROGRAM BY SIGNING UP IN THE FORM BELOW 

INFO & TICKETS FOR EVENING PROGRAM (DINNER & ART) —> HERE

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FULL DAY SCHEDULE

13.00 – 14.00: Lunch

14.00 – 18.00: Workshop
14.00: introduction to the theme, to Annika Lundgren and to Kanslibyrån
15.00: practical exercises with Kanslibyrån
16.00: everyone: presentation of material (see below under Practical Information)
17.00: processing and discussion of the different perspectives presented throughout the day

18.00 – 19.00: Dinner

19.00-21.00: Presentations
Annika Lundgren and Kanslibyrån presents artistic work from the perspective of Magic, Irrationality and Politics.

21.00-23.00: Bar and socializing

PRACTICAL INFORMATION FOR THE WORKSHOP

Please read the digital text-compilation that will be provided by Skogen after registering

Please bring some material for our workshop – this can be text, film material, reflections, literature, ideas, images, objects, stories or other stuff somehow addressing or relating to the topic of the arrangement.

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KANSLIBYRÅN is an activist group and artistic institution created by the artists Per-Arne Sträng and John Huntington. The Bureau is fighting a battle in everyday life where rationality, obedience and effectiveness are questioned in both the private and in the public realm. Society is mainly built on rationality and obedience, as a consequence Kanslibyrån is promoting irrationality and defiance as important behaviors. Kanslibyrån is trying to pinpoint situations where resistance is possible. By being irrational, illogical or act on a whim or impulse, uncertainty is created, and this uncertainty makes way for new thoughts and ideas. The collaboration Kanslibyrån was initiated in 2007 and is an ongoing endeavor.

ANNIKA LUNDGREN is an artist who’s practice mainly consists in time and text base work such as performances, interventions, public arrangements, lectures and writing. A current project is Strategies of Magic – a series of magic shows that addresses the difference between trickery and actual political transformation and where the purpose is to reveal rather than disguise the means behind the manifestation. In The Stock Is Rising Lundgren initiates a levitation of the Old Frankfurt Stockmarket while Atomic Tour – City Of The Damned is a guided bus tour treating it’s audience to a political sci-fi narrative relating the rise of right wing populism. Annika Lundgren is also a professor of Fine Art at the Valand Academy, currently conducting a research project on the relationship between art and politics, supported by the academy research board. This discussion forum at Skogen is carried out as a part of this and is the very first in a series of many to come. It also constitutes the initial establishment of the Resistance Archive which is a central feature of Lundgrens research project.

NIKLAS PERSSON  is an artist and creative director based in Gothenburg, Sweden. With a background in object-centered performance his work is situated in the intersection of conceptual writing, typography and the production of situations—often through publications and other text-based objects. The subject matter and strategies used comes from a long-running interest in that which bridges the dichotomy serious-jokingly, and the relation between sacred-profane in everyday life. Visual language in public space and mundane objects (both contemporary and historical) often serve as a base for his work, whether it is as an artist or creative director; with communication strategy for artists and culture institutions or in the independent production of publications and public situations.

THE RESISTANCE ARCHIVE is a compilation of strategies, theories and other forms of thoughts on political resistance—serves to address if and how art can produce actual political change. In relation to the academic institution the archive investigate what can be channeled from institution to practice for direct and practical use in relation to politics. The source material for the archive comes from art and social science, as well as other (more or less institutionalized) fields within the humanities. The continuously expanding archive merge and cross-fertilize elements from diverse areas, and by performing these new strategies in the form of artworks, actions, seminars/discussions and other events we hope that new practices are formed that can be direct and transformative in a political context. Perhaps the gap between thought and action within both art and activism can be bridged by a new way of thinking about these fields and how the can function as one?