3,5% at Köttinspektionen
The concept 3,5 % is a counter-reaction to the whiteness norm that governs today’s art scene. Within 3,5 % we exclusively work with artists and workers in the culture sector that identifies themselves as POC (People of colour). The concept makes various strides on the contemporary art scene, in order to take possession of it in a separatist narrative.
Within 3,5 %, the artists’ works with different aesthetic expressions.
Köttinspektionen is housing 3,5 % for one afternoon with art films, panel discussion with dinner and a roundtable conversation. The aim is to lift a perspective, which too often is missed in the Swedish diaspora, despite dialogues and reports about diversity.
By illuminating a different perspective, the exhibition shifts the focus from the otherwise homogeneous white perspective that still governs the art scene today.
Still in the year 2019, diversity hardly exists in the Swedish art scene, despite the fact that the concept of diversity has been discussed endlessly since 2005. Visions have been written, investigations have been made, panel discussions have been held, but it is still the ethnic white Swede and their view that is overrepresented at the Stockholm art scene.
Since all these discussions, analyses and investigations have not allowed any structural change, the concept is watered down and the discussion becomes meaningless.
Ashik Zaman conducted a survey that was presented in the art magazine Konstnären, in which it appears that the most established galleries in Stockholm together represent 450 artists, of which only 16 people are, (3.5%) – non-white people.
In this exhibition we are a 100% POC (People of Colour) and NBPOC (Non Black People Of Colour) from artists to art curator.
-Art Curator Sarah Tawiah Svärd
Program
Kl 13.00: Salad Hilowle: “Warayaa” (4,33 min) ”Letter to Sweden” (7 min)
Kl 13.30: Nina Mangalanayagam: “Balancing Act” (10 min).
Kl 13.55: Panel discussion
Kl 15.15: Cristian Quinteros Soto: “Cadenas” (1h 37 min)
Kl 17.25: Cristian Quinteros Soto Dinner and talks. This event has a restrictive number of seats. First come, first served.
RSVP: info@tawiahcurating.com before 01.02.2020
The evening ends at ca 18:35
Free entry
Detailed program
13.00: Salad Hilowe “Letter to Sweden” (7 min) and “Waravaa” (4,33) are both included in his Gävle trilogy in which he cast light on the feeling of betweenship and racialisation by delicately depict identity, ethnicity and place.
“Letter to Sweden is a poetic description of a mother and daughter’s correspondence by letters. The mother has moved back to Somalia and expresses a nostalgic longing of the Sweden she remembers. Her grown up daughter lives in Gävle and doesn’t feel hopeful of what Sweden has become, with racist in the streets.” -Aftonbladet
“A kind of magical documentary realism, we get through a collage of poetic pictures and voices, an insight to a young Somali man’s experience in Sweden. Warvaa sets us in their reality and challenges the perfunctory image of our media of which we have grown used to.” -Svensk filmdatabas
10 minutes break
13.30: Nina Mangalanayaga, “Balancing Act” (10 min).
On a divided screen a pair of female feet is following the coloured lines marked on the floor of a sports centre, the marks borders for basketball or badminton games.
The camera angle is low and doesn’t allow the viewer to see any other part of the artist except for her feet. With inspiration from historical mapping and the origin of sports rules, Nina Mangalanayagam is questioning what it means to be in between, to cross physical and mental borders. The music, composed by Oliver Barrett, echoes national hymns of Sweden, Denmark, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom. They give a hint of Mangalayanagams emigration history, whereas the text gives personal anecdotes and internal negotiations about cultural hybridity.
Balancing Act is a disoriented experience that disputes the rigidity and arbitrariness in a system we take for granted, the maps and the limits, how those are negotiated and how we can fall in between.
“In a tender manner, the voice in the video tells a story of subtle surroundings in the creation of inbetweenship, that what others then the racialised can’t comprehend, gradually the artwork gains in strength in order to assert its existence.”
15 min break
13.55 Dialogue about representation, we also talk about the films and the concept 3,5 % with Macarena Olmos Dusantart historian, Christian Quinteros Soto, Ylva Habel scientist at CEMFOR , Uppsala University (cancelled) and Sarah Tawiah Svärd, art curator and founder of 3,5 %. Ca 1 hour.
20 min break
15.15: Christian Quinteros Soto “Caderas” (1h 37 min)
20 min break
17.25 Invitation to dinner and round-table dialogue with the artist Cristian Quinteris Soto
“Cadenas is a film about my mother Margarita Soto Salinas where she tells the story about her life, her thoughts and experiences. During one week, I invited my parents to a cabin in Grålö, outside of Stockholm, so that they could teach me Chilean cuisine. This is an investigation of a family-archive and how oral transmission of history moves from time and geographical distance. After the film, I invite you to taste some of the dishes my parents taught me. During the dinner, we will engage in round-table dialogue.”
To give the artist time to prepare the food. Note that allergies, vegan or vegetarian diet needs to be addressed in the RSVP. There are 25 seats to the dinner and round-table dialogue and so remember to RSVP in time.
Those who want to participate in the dinner and round-table dialogue have to RSVP 01.02.2020 to info@tawiahcurating.com to give the artist time to prepare the food. The evening will end approximately at 6.35pm
Supported by Kulturrådet, Uppsala kommuns kulturnämnd and CEMFOR Uppsala universitet
Sponsored by
