What happened with the art of the strike? An art ... - Tensta konsthall

More documents

Recommendations

Info

In December 1969, a wildcat strike broke out in the iron ore fields in Norrbotten, the far north of Sweden. Despite the fact that it was a record year for Sweden and that the state-owned mining company LKAB made a profit, the working conditions of the miners became worse. The strike spread from Kiruna to Svappavaara and Malmberget and after a few days, involved some 5,000 miners. Through NLF (National Liberation Front/Vietnam) and other local political groups, many people working in culture expressed solidarity with the miners and engaged themselves in their situation. Artist Ingela Johansson’s project What happened with the art of the strike? is about the wildcat strike–which can be seen as one of the first major cracks in the facade of the welfare state–and the effects it had on the cultural life. The project encompasses various investigations of the strike, and these are materialized in different ways. One is an exhibition of the Gruvarbetarnas strejkkonstsamling (The Miners’ Strike Art Collection), the largest part of which is shown at Tensta konsthall. The collection consists of some one hundred artworks which were donated by artists in support of the strike fund. Among the artists who donated work were Albin Amelin, Siri Derkert, Lars Hillersberg, and Berta Hansson. At present, the collection is under the auspices of the municipal Gällivare Museum. Ingela Johansson’s project also contains edited archive material, a series of photographs and dramatizations based on strike documents. Various social and political groups were active all over Sweden to collect money for the miners' strike fund when they did not get strike support from LO (The Swedish Trade Union Confederation). Several initiatives were taken on by the arts and culture scene to organize art auctions and fundraisers for the strikers including by Sundsvall Museum, Stockholm Concert Hall, Moderna Muséet and Gallery Heland. The art works which were shipped to Malmfälten were nevertheless not sold. Instead, after the strike, they were spread out and stored on different premises such as ABF (Workers’ Educational Association), Gruv 4:an (4th Mine), and Folkets Hus in Malmberget. Over the years, the collection has been managed by the strike committee members and the local mining union, Gruv 4:an, in Malmberget, but since 2009 it has been stored at Gällivare Museum. The theatre groups such as the NJA group and collection is owned by the miners at LKAB. Teater Narren. Part of the project What Another part of Ingela Johansson’s happened with the art of the strike? project is a book which has been produced has been produced within the framework at Konsthall C in collaboration with the of Kirunatopia, a residency programme poet and designer Martin Högström, and initiated by the Goethe Institute, Sweden will be printed during the spring of 2013. and Konsthall C in cooperation with the The book focuses on how the miners’ municipality of Kiruna and the Art College strike brought together the 1968 at Umeå University, the Bildmuseet and movement, popular movements, and the Gällivare Museum. The project has working-class Left. The strike is depicted been subsidized by the Swedish Arts through a montage of documentary Grants Committee. Thanks to the Swedish materials, play manuscripts, texts, and contemporary interviews. An important Royal Dramatic Theater. point of departure for the book is the In the exhibition: cultural productions that were created in Art Collection: The Mineworkers’ Art conjunction with the strike. The cultural Collection from the strike in 1969, workers' engagement in social and Gällivare Museum political movements and democratization For the complete list of works in the processes during 1968 has been added to collection please refer to the end the history of the strike. In addition to The Miners’ Strike Art Collection, these of the hand out include Sara Lidman’s and Odd Uhrbom’s Documents: reportage book, Gruva (The Mine), the - Poster I, Telegram to the strike documentary film Kamrater, motståndare committee from the Swedish people är välorganiserad (Comrades, the - Poster II, Inventory list by Östen Opposition Is Well Organized), which will Öhlund, member of the strike committee be screened on 20.03 at Tensta konsthall, Video: Speech to the mineworkers by Sara Gruvstrejken 69/70 (The Mine Strike Lidman, staged by Cecilia Nilsson on 69/70) by Margareta Vinterheden and 13.3. 2013 at Tensta konsthall. Concept by Alf Israelsson, and performances of Ingela Johansson. In the café. 2 What happened with the art of the strike?
Interview with Ingela Johansson conducted by curator Kim Einarsson on 10.4.2012 Kim Einarsson: Many of your works show your interest in how art is collected and mediated, and the ideologies involved. In this project you have chosen to show the art collection that was established in connection with the big mining strike at Svappavaara, Malmberget, and Kiruna in 1969-1970. What specifically about this strike and collection interested you? Ingela Johansson: The strike brought to the fore the power relationships in working life and the forces behind society’s development. One wanted to have increased influence over work and the organisation of work. The critique of ideology was a strong current in the intellectual world and the city political machine’s influence over cultural practice was a complicated one. There was a massive support fund raised for the strikers among cultural practitioners around the country. I find the act of donating art in solidarity with the strikers very interesting: to give away something as a gift with the idea that the striking miners and can contribute by showing the collection in an art context, and convey a symbolic image of the strike in dialogue with other collections. What is especially interesting with the miner strike’s art collection is that this historical representation is broad--that it has roots in the people and worker’s movement, but also in an art scene with many prominent modernists represented. It is an important document of its time. KE: Your project builds on several years of work on this strike and the cultural productions that arose as acts of solidarity with the striking workers. You have a gigantic amount of archival material. Can you say something about your selection of material for this presentation in Umeå? IJ: It is important to see the collection as a collection with its own body and its own fate. It represents the strike committee. I have seen the opportunity of collaborating with Gällivare Museum to research on the collection for a larger ongoing text work as a parallel activity to actually presenting it physically to an audience in a museum. Considering the historical context of the collection, that it belongs to the strike translate had the potential to change society. The collection tells a history about the fact that artists stood up for the miners in a labour market conflict that shook the Swedish Model significantly. It is also a great resource as a document of its time that allows one to further analyse larger structures, such as the power relationship between the individual and the state during a time of social flux, as the ‘60-70s is commonly characterised. Precisely this perspective felt relevant and important to address in relation to the artworks that are represented in the collection, which has found a home at Gällivare Museum, a hundred kilometres south of Kiruna. The collection consists of sculptures, paintings, drawings, and graphic art: works that were donated by artists to the miners to supplement their strike fund through various auctions and collections. In another parallel work-in-progress I examine the zeitgeist of the ‘60s and ‘70s and other cultural productions that were connected to the strike, which was a part of a larger widespread current of activism that occurred around the strike. On the whole, this is an almost impossible task because I was not involved myself during this period, but I’ve studied it a great deal committee, I have started from the minutes of the committee meetings where the collection is mentioned. The collection was not sold after the strike, but the committee did wonder what they should do with it. They wanted to initiate a travelling exhibition, under the responsibility of the Malmberget librarian Adolf Henriksson, in which the art would be shown together with other documents from the collection, but this never happened for some unknown reason. I wanted to pursue the idea, but have made a compromise before the exhibition at Bildmuseet. Gällivare Museum has gotten the work in the best condition possible since the collection is not complete. It is important to not make a selection, but to initially follow the inventory list from the committee and the strike committee’s protocol as much as possible. The collection has not been shown outside of Norrbotten before. Bildmuseet is today the largest art museum in northern Sweden and the opportunity was given to showcase the majority of the collection under the umbrella of Kirunatopia. KE: For the opening you have arranged a staging of the speech that the author Sara 3
Page 1: What happened with the art of the s
Page 5 and 6: experience. The Swedish artists who
Page 7 and 8: he was Head of the Department of Sl
Page 9 and 10: List of artworks following a counte
Page 11 and 12: 68. Lind, Folke The Tourist in Tjuo

What happened with the art of the strike? An art ... - Tensta konsthall

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?