Download pdf version of issue no. 16 (4 Mb) - Pavilion

[164]
Klas Eriksson
Com´on You Reds
Curva Viola
I take an interest in control, power and limitation,
through the expressions of performance,
video and sculpture. My point of
departure is mass-culture, where, employing
various strategies, I explore notions of
authenticity, power and artistic expression.
In all my works I have an attempt to establish
communicative immediacy that is both
visually and conceptually innovative. The
works often borrow their expressions from
popular culture, subculture and various
power structures.
For BB5 I am doing two collective performances
with emphasis on the given architecture,
subculture and the public realm of
Bucharest. The two performances can be
seen as a mash-up between the terrace
culture surrounding football, the public
realm and the history of Bucharest.
I see it as a way of questioning what the
public space has to offer in terms of readings
and reactions. A staged collective
action with a key signature in a subcultural
movement is put in a different context.
The performance visually triggers questions
on political issues, hostility, power
and esthetics. The many different readings
that appear can be seen as addressing
a slumbering public subconscious.
The first performance, titled Com´on You
Reds, consists in around 100 volunteers
burning red flares on the terraces of
Intercontinental Hotel, an important landmark
of Bucharest situated in the
University Square which stands as a symbol
of freedom and a place of protest. The
title comes from a chant that originates
from the British football culture. The hotel,
which for a very long time dominated the
center of Bucharest with it's height, was
perceived as a standard of luxury and cosmopolitan
western life style before '89,
when it functioned as a hotel for foreigners
only. It still preserves it's symbolic status in
the collective memory. The performance
will challenge the way people perceive the
connection between the social and architecture,
by transforming the building in a
temporary sculpture that relates to the
complex history of the University Square
and the participatory role that subcultures
may appropriate within the frame of social
movement.
The other performance, titled Curva Viola,
consists of a large amount of pink and violet
smoke that will temporary mark Make a
Point, a cultural community center situated
in Pantelimon, one of Bucharest's so
called disadvantaged area, in a communist
textile factory. In this performance a
memory of the early fanzine movement
surrounding the Swedish terrace culture is
reenacted through the attempt of recreating
a b&w xeroxed image of Curva Viola,
the ultras of Fiorentina football club, into
the colors my mind reads. Again, by transforming
architecture in temporary sculptural
monuments, I wish to raise awareness
over this areas and their social relevance
for the urban landscape. (K.E.)
Klas Ericsson, Who are ya?!, collective performance, 2011. Courtesy of Göteborg Biennale
2011. Photo: Dorota Dolores Marzena Lukianska.
[165]