related texts:
Suburbia
July 7, 2007
Published on Point of view
A year ago I did a video project together with my ‘associate’ Oskar Lindström about the phenomenon Suburbia. As point of departure we took a text by Robert Smithson about the construction of Passaic, a suburb of New Jersey, a landscape he describes in terms of monuments.
continue reading...
July 7, 2007
Published on Point of view
A year ago I did a video project together with my ‘associate’ Oskar Lindström about the phenomenon Suburbia. As point of departure we took a text by Robert Smithson about the construction of Passaic, a suburb of New Jersey, a landscape he describes in terms of monuments.
continue reading...
it's better to build than to fade away
Title: part #4 / Sundsberg - Sveaborg
Year: 2006
'it's better to build than to fade away' is an ongoing project by Oskar Lindström and me. Read more...
Produced with the support of the Swedish Culture Foundation in Finland
Watch a compilation of the video
Year: 2006
'it's better to build than to fade away' is an ongoing project by Oskar Lindström and me. Read more...
Produced with the support of the Swedish Culture Foundation in Finland
Watch a compilation of the video
background
Part #4 is a two-screen video installation that documents and critically reflects on the construction of two identical suburbs, in Rotterdam and Helsinki, juxtaposing them with identical filming and editing. With a voice-over quoting from the critical text 'A Tour Of The Monuments Of The Passaic', by Robert Smithson.
Background
It’s better to build than to fade away, part #4 is a video installation that deals with the construction of two residential areas, Sveaborg (outside Schiedam, NL) and Sundsberg (outside Helsinki, FI). The way housing areas used to be built, they had a natural relation to the surrounding landscape. Houses were built into nature. With a minimum of change, natural scenery was made inhabitable thus creating a balance between man-made environment and nature. However doesn't comply to today's commercial housing industry. The videos document the way the previous landscape is erased and a new, completely synthetic environment is being created: the dissapearing of nature as such.
But this is not the only similarity between these residential areas. Their designs are strikingly similar as well. Both draw from the same Scandinavian design, however stripped off from its traditional spirit and essence. By erasing the existing landscape, disposing the design of all origin and applying it around the world, these areas have no history. Hence culture has disappeared as well.
The video is supported by voice-over with texts taken from the essay A tour of the Monuments of the Passaic, by Robert Smithson, spoken by Scott Bronfman.
Background
It’s better to build than to fade away, part #4 is a video installation that deals with the construction of two residential areas, Sveaborg (outside Schiedam, NL) and Sundsberg (outside Helsinki, FI). The way housing areas used to be built, they had a natural relation to the surrounding landscape. Houses were built into nature. With a minimum of change, natural scenery was made inhabitable thus creating a balance between man-made environment and nature. However doesn't comply to today's commercial housing industry. The videos document the way the previous landscape is erased and a new, completely synthetic environment is being created: the dissapearing of nature as such.
But this is not the only similarity between these residential areas. Their designs are strikingly similar as well. Both draw from the same Scandinavian design, however stripped off from its traditional spirit and essence. By erasing the existing landscape, disposing the design of all origin and applying it around the world, these areas have no history. Hence culture has disappeared as well.
The video is supported by voice-over with texts taken from the essay A tour of the Monuments of the Passaic, by Robert Smithson, spoken by Scott Bronfman.