UPHEAVAL

scenario

This webpage is the home of an art project by visual artist Kerstin Bergendal.

The artist will add a new artwork to Götaplatsen—a very large square in the heart of Gothenburg (SE). This is a public commission from the City of Gothenburg in 2024.

The physical addition will be elaborated through an extended durational and public dialogue, exploring different aspects of the site from 2024 to 2028.

This website will let you to follow this gradually growing exploration:To the right, you’ll find two rows of images. Click on any image to open it and read a short text by the artist about what you see.

The top row shows fragments from archives, books, and research.
The bottom row follows the artist as she moves through the city—including short videos about people she has met along the way.

UPHEAVAL

scenario

This webpage is the home of an art project by visual artist Kerstin Bergendal.

The artist will add a new artwork to Götaplatsen—a very large square in the heart of Gothenburg (SE). This is a public commission from the City of Gothenburg in 2024.

The physical addition will be elaborated through an extended durational and public dialogue, exploring different aspects of the site from 2024 to 2028.

The top row shows fragments from archives, books, and research.
The bottom row follows the artist as she moves through the city—including short videos about people she has met along the way.

A

A MARRIAGE CODE

In 1919, the City decided to build the Place as a way to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the City’s founding. However, it was not completed until 1923.

I notice how this four-year span seems to resurface throughout my search of various archives. A series of parallel — and truly decisive — political decisions were made in the Country during these four years. Decisions that would fundamentally change conditions for generations to come. And thus also has had a direct impact on the conditions of my own life.

This is one example of such a new law. The text is a presentation from 1919 of a proposal for a new Marriage Code: “On the Wife’s Position according to the Proposed New Marriage Code.” The image you see is a copy of the introduction to the proposal. It was dispersed for discussion among the members of a branche of the Womens Right Movement. The actual new Marriage Code was approved by the Parliament in the year 1920.

I give you two quotes from the text;:

“(…) With the disappearance of guardianship, the wife gains the same
legal capacity as an unmarried woman; she no longer needs
her husband’s consent or approval to enter into a contract,
take on a financial guarantee, or run a business:
she has full control over her labor and speaks for herself.

A mother, who as a widow has served as guardian for her children,
will no longer, as is now the case, lose that role if she remarries,
for a wife can, just like a widow or an unmarried woman,
serve as guardian not only for her own children
but also for any other person under guardianship.”

I have not found any evident link here, to with the Place, its form or function. One could see the new laws as a mere coincidence.

But… are they?

As these four years keep reappearing throughout my journey in the archives, I’ve begun to think of the Place as a kind of boundary marker — a physical midpoint in time, between a Before and an After.

Or as it the pole at the center of a seesaw, when the board tipped?

Text: Landsföreningen för kvinnans politiska rösträtt, 1919.