Ordet exposition har vare sig i en forskningskontext eller i bildkonsten nĂ„gon lĂ€ngre historia. De sceniska, tekniska och visuella konotationerna av ordet handlar om förklaring, uppvisande, om vĂ€gledande kommentarer, om att framstĂ€lla nĂ„got öppet â att föra fram det i ljuset. Vi kan tĂ€nka pĂ„ kamerans exponeringstid eller pĂ„ hur expositionen i teatern eller filmen Ă€r de partier som ger den bakgrund till karaktĂ€rerna som Ă€r nödvĂ€ndig för berĂ€ttelsen. Det Ă€r intressant att gatukonstnĂ€ren och den konstnĂ€rlige forskaren Adam Kraft i detta sammanhang har skapat en exposition för VIS premiĂ€rnummer. Hela Adam Krafts mer Ă€n 15-Ă„riga gĂ€rning handlar om Ă„tkomst till dolda och förmodat oĂ„tkomliga utrymmen i staden och offentligheten, platser som konstnĂ€ren utforskar och pĂ„ olika sĂ€tt bebor och skapar avtryck pĂ„ â bĂ„de som en markör för dess potential och för att i graffiti-traditionen sĂ€tta sitt mĂ€rke. Detta intrĂ€ngande i, och omförhandlande av, stĂ€ngda offentliga fysiska rum har en politisk betydelse och handlar ytterst om en dekonstruktion av sjĂ€lva förestĂ€llningsförmĂ„gan â âde-imagineeringâ, som Kraft sĂ€ger, dĂ€r förestĂ€llningsförmĂ„gans tankematerial förĂ€ndras och vidgas. âRĂ€tten till stadenâ fĂ„r en ny betydelse i denna exposition av expeditionerna platser som vi inte förvĂ€ntas bli exponerade för. Denna möjligen paradoxala öppenhet, detta uppvisande, innefattar ocksĂ„ de bokstavliga metodologiska verktygslĂ„dor som utvecklats i Krafts arbete i en form av best practice-anda. Adams Krafts bidrag visar pĂ„ en potential inom forskning pĂ„ konstnĂ€rlig grund: vi kan fĂ„ en viss tillgĂ„ng till stadens frĂ„nsida och dess möjligheter, och vi kan till och med dela vissa metoder, bevekelsegrunder och utopier för denna Ă„tkomst.
Magnus BÀrtÄs, Redaktionskommittén
Biografi
In my work I experiment with âde-imagineeringâ and intervening into the âurban commons,â through practices of altering and re-purposing existing structures. The work is both informal and transgressive in its methodology, with the core intention to investigate and participate in the shaping and making of the city. Art and research can provide keys to accessing such a city in the making; a space where we can challenge the preconceptions of what is possible, and to imagine alternative strategies for the creation of realities. As the concept of âimagineeringâ suggests; it is imagination-engineering possibilities to hypothetically look behind reality and shape it. Furthermore, I wish to specify âimagination,â as the thought material that potential realities are made from. As the term âimagineeringâ is heavily connected to its use in the creative economy, I suggest the wordplay of âde-imagineeringâ (the deconstruction of imagination). I argue that the production of imagination is fundamental for the change of current conditions and should as such be re-appropriated. In this sense itâs an anarchist posture; it denounces everything that cuts us off from and diminishes our own power to act.
Not only imagination is held in the deposit and account holdings of corporate and commercial actors, but so are many of the tactics that are designed to contest this hegemony. Counter culture is continuously being transformed to fit as capitalismâs sanitizing tool in âredevelopingâ cities, co-opted and instrumentalized in processes of gentrification. In my work this manifests the ethical issue of having a practice that risks to end up fueling the dominant system in opposition. A phenomenon that the Situationists referred to as RĂ©cuperation; âthe activity of society as it attempts to obtain possession of what negates it,â or one could say: how strategies of resistance towards âthe spectacleâ ends up being a vital part of it.
Based on this knowledge Iâm researching which transgressive strategies, evasive yet present, could be practiced under the Lefebvrian concept of the âRight to the City.â How could they be constructed, performed and shared?
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