Between 2024 and 2028, the Danish-Swedish visual artist Kerstin Bergendal is carrying out a concept- and time-based public art project at Götaplatsen in Gothenburg, commissioned by the Traffic Administration Office and in collaboration with Göteborg Konst, the Cultural Administration of the City of Gothenburg.

METHOD AND FORM

Götaplatsen holds a special position in Gothenburg. It is perceived and used as a fixed emblem of the city itself. Kerstin Bergendal has chosen to base her work on the fact that there are already vast amounts of images, ideas, literature, and research about Götaplatsen. Therefore, she has divided her work into several phases.

• Step 1 is a broad collection phase – a kind of “pre-study.” For two years, the artist consistently asks questions. She seeks out and reuses parts/fragments from the extensive material found in various archives and research about Götaplatsen. In particular, she looks for the ideas and notions that have contributed to the site’s current form and role in the city – plans, thoughts, ideas, structures, as well as its technical and economic history.
  At the same time, she searches for collaborators. She walks through the city herself to observe/document what she sees and the conversations she ends up in along the way. She seeks out individuals, professions, platforms, and organizations in Gothenburg who can tell her more about these ideas and notions – as well as residents whose memories and stories can be woven into the art project’s focus. Finally, she also carries out a series of public events at Götaplatsen, where all of this is presented to interested Gothenburgers. (A first event is described below.)
• Step 2 is the work of transforming the collected material into a lasting artwork to be added to the site in 2028. But what this final work will consist of won’t become clear until Step 1 is complete. The project rests on a logic of listening – it is only after the artist’s “pre-study” of Götaplatsen has been conducted that the final physical addition to the site can take shape.

WEBSITE AS ARCHIVE

The website will gradually evolve alongside the artist’s process and will slowly take on the character of an alternative “Götaplatsen archive.” A travelogue or mapping: The artist borrows others’ perspectives and words for the city and the place. But all fragments she includes in the archive are retold by her in her own words, through photos and videos. These fragments appear without chronological or thematic order. Chance may play a role: unexpected constellations of fragments can reveal aspects of Götaplatsen that otherwise remain hidden in the gaps between different areas of knowledge.

Gothenburgers can follow the artist’s journey into the root system of the place and her walks through the city. This also offers an opportunity to rediscover what is already overly familiar in their own city and space.

SURFACE OF TOUCH

The “Götaplatsen Archive” will be continuously made available to a wider public – both through the website and via a series of public events throughout the project’s duration. The goal is to establish and maintain a public dialogue/reflection on Götaplatsen. A dialogue that also involves different kinds of audiences and public spheres in various places around the city. All dialogues and events will be documented on the website.