This episode is in swedish

On the work that never happened presents the background and thoughts on an artwork by Michele Masucci and Karl Sjölund that due to various circumstances could not be realized for the 2020 Luleå Biennial. Changes in the planned implementation are recounted, and different elements and issues are discussed. Consideration regarding the creation and conditions of this specific work of art is mixed with speculations about the questions of our time.

The artwork took its starting point in Gällivare of the 1980s and 90s with the gradual entry of neoliberalism producing cultural, political and social changes. Through found objects, artifacts from that time and time-typical phenomena the emerging private luxury consumption would be reflected. How did the introduction of cable TV with programs such as Baywatch, loan-financed pickups and home bars evoke new desires and social conditions? We wanted to understand how a society strongly rooted in the labour movement's history and community was transformed by individualism and privatization during a few decades. A transformation that took on unique expressions based on the cultural history of the place that was simultaneously part of the global development of capitalism, with the 80s counter-reaction to the social struggles of the 60s and 70s and the notion of the end of history after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The early social and cultural signs we traced preceded extensive neoliberal structural transformations that introduced overdetermining forms of governance that put old ideological lines of conflict out of play. In Gällivare and Malmberget, this meant among other things, an adaptation to the global market demands of the mining industry during the 2000s.

This tracing of a particular time and place’s masculine consumer culture would be confronted with popular folk songs that recounted women's living conditions during the 20th century. When the work could no longer be carried out as a physical installation, it took on a new form. The broader historical transformations in Gällivare's history were to be presented through Karl's own grandmother, Ruth Åkerman. She left behind a diary written during the 90s. Ruth, who passed away in 2018, grew up in Malmberget in the 30s and 40s. During her life, she developed writing that mixed memories and personal considerations. Fragments from Ruth's diary are read out in the program.

Michele Masucci (b. 1980, Sollentuna) and Karl Sjölund (b. 1986, Luleå) are artists based in Stockholm.