hammoca class I/Watch the birdie, art work in the exhibition sambarchitecture, Botkyrka konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden 2007 05 16 – 2007 08 31. Used as a pedagogical tool. Eight Brazilian hammocas in a wooden construction that can be multiplied into infinity. The work was one of our additions to the exhibition. Hammoca class worked as a part of the exhibition architecture and as a place for gathering and exchange – an invitation to take part of the exhibition from a different perspective.The Brazilian artist Helio Oiticia inspired the disposition of the room. To try to bridge the gap between art and life, rich and poor is something we inherited from Helio’s art. The hammocas are an addition to public landscape we built the spring of 2006 for Botkyrka Konsthall and refers to Oiticica’s works Cosmo Coca from 1974. Helio coined the term Tropicalia and is one of few Brazilian artists who have had success in the northern hemisphere. Our ignorance as to what is happening in the former European colonies is still a problem, we think.
hammoca class II/Watch the birdie, Vårsalongen, Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden 2008 01 25 – 2008 03 16 We took an interest in the works travel between the suburb Botkyrka and inner city royal Djurgården and the Stockholm municipal kunsthalle – Liljevalchs. In Botkyrka municipal kunsthalle the work was used so much that we repeatedly had to change the straps they hung from. In Liljevalchs the work was turned into a sculptural object. Along a wall a sofa was placed from which visitors could view the work at a distance. It was highlighted with colored lights. The hanging at Liljevalchs we left entirely up to the kunsthalle to interpret. Our instruction was a picture of the installation from Botkyrka and a small sign with a text as follows:
(text sign by the work)
”Watch the birdie” – Hammoca class
”Watch the birdie” – Hammoca class is a construction which can be varied and extended in various ways. In recent years we have studied cities, places and institutions that in various ways have been created for the needs of society. We have examined everything from psychiatric wards, housing development in Sweden to the favelas of Rio and Sao Paulo. Favelas are built and inhabited by people who are not included in the formal society with housing, public services and fully-developed health care. Counterparts to the Brazilian favelas exist also in other countries and continents.
Summer 2007, we made a summer exhibition at Botkyrka kunsthalle where this construction in wood for 8 hammocas became a temporary addition to the public landscape with furniture, spatial units and pedagogic tools that we created for the kunsthalle.
”Watch the birdie” is our blink to the Brazilian artist Helio Oiticica (1937 -1980) and a play with the travel class on the riverboats in the Amazonas called ”Hammoca class” – a compartment below deck where the cheapest tickets give the right to hang your hammoca to spend the trip in.
Helio Oiticica thought that one could experience an exhibition from a horizontal perspective, rocking and sort of taking it in slightly through the corner of one’s eye, experience it through the body, in a relaxed and pleasurable way. He let life flow into the white cube with friends from the favela, the samba school Mangueira and parrots – from the street into the posh rooms. ”Watch the birdie” – Hammoca class is a construction which can be varied and extended in various ways.
Anna Kindgren and Carina Gunnars January 23, 2008
hammoca class III, course, Konstfack, Fall 2008