The Transport Art Project: Matter and Metaphysics

We live in a society more and more made of transports and flow. The GlobalVillage, predicted by Marshall McLuhan, is a reality today. We cantransfer both mankind and our mental and material artefacts round theglobe at multiple speed compared to what was possible just a century ago. The internet and mobile telephony have introduced new conditions for communication between people.The number of transfers increase continually, and it isn´t just wireless communication that is involved. An increasing number of companies keep a moving stock perpetually on the road between various production units, or between producers and customers. And like never before, we are subjects of transfer too. Decreasing flight prices are creating worldwide mass tourism. Nevertheless, however, some aspects of our physical existence and locality seem as important as ever. That people meet each other still enjoys high priority, and certain places on Earth are as popular as they ever were. Indeed, most world capitals are in fact growing in size. Why is that? Do some factors in certain combinations still allow for a creative and dynamic human interchange? The Stockholm area of Sweden seems to grow in popularity as it has an attractive power upon people from other areas of the country, which in turn, are being depopulated. There are old and well known roads for new impulses and products into Goteborg, one being the sea where ships at all times have brought new things and ideas. More modern news roads are provided by the Information Technology. The shape, package, and physical movenent of transfer are facinating to us, and the focus of this exhibition.

We propose to manifest the communicative positon of Göteborg by the Transfer- Destination Göteborg Art Exhibition. There are well-known ware transfer channels to Göteborg, among them the seaway in all times used for new wares and ideas. More modern news channels are the information technology. The idea is to create a communications center in the heart of Göteborg for incoming wares, mental and otherwise. All transfer vehicles are valid. Perhaps something original, something we never thought of, might come up from the participating artists. In this fashion we can adress the question of the Göteborgian view of the furure, how one could make the development of the region more creative for people at work and home.

Practically it is a matter of eight to ten artists from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany, working out one project each, concerning the actual transfer of the piece, idea, or person, to the exhibition location in Göteborg. The exhibition itself is made of the transfer documentation itself, and the piece transferred. This project features one interesting and important philosophical point in that the artwork often has an origin, and a destination, in this project named Transfer-Destination Göteborg. The participitating artists are free to choose their medium, such as performance, computer art, video, or some more traditional artistic expression.

Stefan Karlsson and Katja Lindqvist. Göteborg 23 aug 1999