The New Biennial for Art & Architecture in Botkyrka: The Flea Market!
17 September 2016 in Fittja
This year’s edition of the New Biennial for Art & Architecture in Botkyrka takes the form of an art festival & flea market in the neighbourhood of Fittja.
The New Biennial is an event that invites the community to explore the public space through new forms of art. It is a lo-fi and process-based format focusing on the intersection between contemporary art, community engagement and architecture, en route to the new arts institution that will be built in Fittja and ready to open in 2018 (edit: Botkyrka konsthall opened in Fittja, May 2019).
Together with Botkyrka konsthall, Abir Boukhari (AllArtNow) is co-curating the New biennial in Fittja and the exhibition Övergångar / Transitions that brings part of the flea market to Botkyrka konsthall. Abir has been resident curator in Residence Botkyrka during the spring and summer of 2016.
In the Flea market residents of Fittja together with local organisations sell second hand clothes, objects, handicrafts, books and more.
Neda Razavipour (Teheran) with the art project Half Objects, asks us to bring our broken, useless, non-functional but cherished objects to her at the Flea Market, to share the nostalgia and see whether they can acquire new meanings, as part of an artwork.
Ayhan Aydin & Josefin Vargö, Variations on an caffe, Ayhan and Josefin offer a taste experience exploring how food may taste depending on how it has been produced. Try different variations and get in touch with the basic tastes.
Junior Residence The unconventional summer job where a group of youths from Botkyrka explore their surroundings through an artistic process. This summer, the group decided to take on the idea of the “game” which turned into a large-scale, interactive board game that will spread out over Fittja Square and invite passers-by to take part.
The creative collective Färgsättarna is a Botkyrka based network of young artists working in a variety of artistic expressions in an urban context. Their different styles and media enable them to take on all sorts of artistic challenges. Here in Fittja, they are documenting, bringing in various visual elements, and are running a “spray-paint-umbrellas” workshop for children.
Last November, Breeze Yoko spent a few frosty days painting the back of the Fittja Kitchen container, as part of his stay in Residence Botkyrka. Read more about his thoughts on painting in Fittja, and the striking pattern that originates from the African Nguni tradition, in the publication DîN. This time, he is joining Färgsättarna and will continue painting around the Fittja Kitchen.
The art collective, Leire Mesa & Marta Gil, from Alby with roots in Spain and the Basque Country creates art through body movements and visual expressions. In the workshop Twist & Saw, participants are stretching their boundaries in a circus experience using a trapeze, paint and fabric to create a collective installation to the sound of live music.
Muhammad Ali came to Fittja from Damascus in the spring. He has been a resident artist in Residence Botkyrka and is publishing an artist book showing his drawings which literarily illustrates his journey from Damascus to Europe. The book is released in Labyrint’s upcoming anthology this autumn. In Fittja, Muhammad’s work is engaging with the Flea Market and explores the relation between his hometown and Fittja.
