The work contains 3 different projects:
– SPEECH TO THE PEOPLE – Megaphone performance on a balcony over a square
– FRIRUMMMET (The space of liberation)
– BETWEEN YOU AND ME – Voices that moves across borders

In the work I were collaborating with different parts: Gothenburg Art hall, Culture school in Gothenburg, Youth initiative Arena 29, and Burgårdens Education centre. The work was also part of the MA-education Contemporary Performative Arts at University of Music and Drama, Gothenburg University, as I graduated from 2014.

Abstract from master thesis:
How can I make art that face people in their everyday lives, which is integrated into their lives, becoming a part of the discussions both in the mundane and in the room of society?

Can I do this by working with performative interpretations that are participatory driven?

I have explored how artists and participants can create spaces that are both open and confidence building, and how they at the same time enable us to question established norms. How to engage in dialogues concerning social, political and existential issues like; What is freedom for me – What is freedom to you? What is it that is important? Which topics are never upraised for discussion?

The project is about putting thoughts, experiences and bodies (my own, the participants and the viewer’s) in relation to each other and to the location and context they are in. It’s about creating a broader perspective where everyone’s voice is important and can take place. It’s about how we in a collective process can collaborate and create artistically through performa­tive expressions in an artwork in which they are participants/actors and I’m the artistic

director. I have also examined whether participatory driven projects is a good condition for creating interpretations that have a critical potential and not just becoming a ”feel-good-experience” for the involved, an instrument to solve social problems or becoming a tool for learning. In the work I’ll try if performative interpretations that are participatory driven are the way to drill into the real world – into the body of humans and the system that we operate under, and how to do so without compromise the artistic intention, ethics and aesthetics.

Performance and interpretation of the process in Frirummet (The space of liberation), by the youths Einar Thorén, Simone Norberg, Rosalie Götborg and Hanna Nyberg.
Photo: Lo Birgersson

They begin to wrap up the visitors, one by one, in red yarn. After a while a black and yellow warning tape is taped around the people in the net.
Paper with quotes, from video interviews in the exhibition, is distributed to the people in the network. These are read out loud, low and all talking at once, everyone who wants read their note aloud or waiting for any of the youths to do it…

“Freedom is to not have a lot of demands on yourself. Being able to choose yourself. Being able to be independent. Respect. That everyone respects each other; otherwise you will automatically have demands on yourself. “
“Freedom is a freshly-prepared slopes, sun and 2 degrees below zero.”
“I’m angry that people get more sympathy because they live in a wealthy country and not in a less developed country. It’s almost like racism. “
“I would be super hero in a movie. Help people. Solve the murder. Fly. ”
“I would ask a stranger: What do you regret in your life? It´s something you´re not asking so often, but it’s good to know I think. “

The exhibition consists of 3 parts:
-VIDEOINTERVIEWS with 23 youths and 17 adults
-INTERACTIVE WALL
-VOICES IN A NET performance with five youths
(see Vernissage Event: BETWEEN YOU AND ME)

What is freedom for me – what is freedom for you? When is it okay to break the law? What makes you angry? What are you dreaming about? Which topics are never raised for discussion?

25 young adults were equipped with a camera, based on a screenplay they interviewed each other and elderly people in their surroundings. The dialouges moves across large and small substances like identity, everyday dilemmas, the outside world, dreams and fears. It touches on taboos and norms based on gender, age and ethnicity.

All the video interviews are displayed as a 4 -hour work in a cinema inside the Art hall, the films are also shown in the six “booths of confession” (as pictured), which shows 6-7 of films in each booth, these are available as placed in various areas at the Art hall.

OPENING EVENT: BETWEEN YOU AND ME – Voices that moves across borders
The event that I curate included: opening speech by America Vera – Zavala, a performative speech by me as an artist / initiator and the performance Voices in a net by five youths from The space of liberation.

-What would you like to ask a friend? (Or a partner, parent, teacher, politician, unknown, 100-years-old…)

-In what place and in what clothing would you like to be filmed?

DOCUMENTATION from tasks during our meetings

An interpretation in 3 parts at University of Music and Drama, Gothenburg University.

About the process and driving forces to the project  BETWEEN YOU AND ME – participatory driven processes and artworks together with youths