Artist: MFK – Malmö fria kvinnouniversitet (Johanna Gustavsson and Lisa Nyberg)
Dimensions and material: 15×3 meters, plastic
Location: In the ceiling of the exhibition hall at Konsthall C, Hökarängen, Stockholm.
Date: Created 2011. Officially declared permanent 2022.
« I am not sure of the title of the work, as it began without a title. It can either be just “The Mirror”, or borrow the title from the exhibition (Insisting on being part of this moment/movement) to make the combination «mirror/moment/movement».»
– Lisa Nyberg, 2021
The mirror in the ceiling of the main hall at Konsthall C is a work of MFK -Malmö Fria Kvinnouniversitet. The piece was made for MFK’s exhibition Insisting to be part of this moment/movement at Konsthall C in 2011 and has become part of all the exhibitions since then.
In connection with the cermonial end of MFK and the release of their handbook Do the Right Thing, MFK asked Roya Hakimnia, Stina Nyberg, Gothenburg’s Queer Institute, the ÖFA collective, Annika Eriksson, the staff at Konsthall C, Malin Arnell and Maria Lind to make an interpretation of the book during the exhibition period. This resulted in a series of meetings, ceremonies, lock-ins, tea seminars, terrorist icons, primal cries, actions, demonstrations, processes and discussions in response to their request.
Quote from MFK’s publication Do the right Thing – a manual from MFK:
“Our work on the project Insist on being a part of this moment/movement (convinced of our greatness) (convinced of our greatness) 1 April – 29 May 2011 at Konsthall C (a non-profit art organization and exhibition space) started under the working title “We won! staging a feminist utopia”. We discussed, analyzed, twisted and reversed our own and other people’s ideas about both utopia and the exhibition space. We thought of those who would visit Art Gallery C in the hope of being introduced to a feminist utopia. .. whatever we did, we would disappoint them. One idea we had about the showroom was to build a perfect meeting place where many people could participate on equal terms, where everyone could communicate with each other and where space was created. for different perspectives
The utopian building construction was translated into the idea of putting mirrors on the ceiling and in this way doubling both the space and the collective and at the same time giving an overview and the opportunity to see oneself as part of something bigger. Instead of staging the utopia as an exhibition, we realized that the utopia is based on the presence of people, the utopia is created when people activate it, therefore we chose to open up the space for different collaborations and activities.
When we first became interested in feminist utopias, we had an idea that we could produce a place, an image – something concrete, but the more we tried, the more difficult it became. Utopia cannot be defined as a static, perfect place; it is the ongoing attempts, the fiction, the theory and the pursuit of the perfect existence. Through our persistent work, we began to discern a common thread. It was all those situations when we met with others who had the same need and desire to shape the future, that together we made utopia.
We claimed the space we needed and created temporary places where we set the agenda. For us, utopia became a way of acting politically in our everyday life.”
Links:
http://mfkuniversitet.blogspot.com/2011/04/oppningsceremonin-och-talet.html
