empty space / enclosed dissolved
Public sound art installation in the covered terrace,
Malmskillnadsgatan 47 / Tunnelgatan 2, Stockholm
18 May – 1 June 2023
Curator Joel Albinsson
Artist Ellen Arkbro
Documentation Elias Albinsson
empty space / enclosed dissolved is curated by Joel Albinsson, as part of his graduation project from the International Master’s Programme in Curating Art at Stockholm University.
18 May – 1 June 2023
Curator Joel Albinsson
Artist Ellen Arkbro
Documentation Elias Albinsson
empty space / enclosed dissolved is curated by Joel Albinsson, as part of his graduation project from the International Master’s Programme in Curating Art at Stockholm University.
In the middle of the city, at the point where Tunnelgatan and Malmskillnadsgatan meet, a brick building gives way to an occluded passage, a covered terrace. This place is a stone’s throw away from the district’s main street, immediately adjacent to the infamous stairs that Olof Palme’s killer used to make their escape, and above popular Brunkebergstunneln. These sites, though their significance vary greatly in character, all hold a strong place in the public consciousness of the city as sites of transit and commerce, of memory, and the melding of striking architecture and historic feats of engineering.
In contrast, the terrace itself is insignificant to most. Designed to fit a one-way escalator and a lift, it is a space of pure function which provides the city with much needed accessibility. It serves this purpose but does little else. There is no monumentality, no grandeur, no weight of history. It is next to, near, but ultimately a passive bystander to things bigger than itself. Still, it operates as a part in a vital system designed to ferry people up and down Brunkebergsåsen, the steep ridge that cuts across northern Stockholm.
Here the terrace lies, tucked away. Appearing as a hole in the cityscape, not immediately visible unless you know where to look or if you approach it with purpose. The enclosed emptiness calls out for something to fill it and give it shape: to mark it, amending function with form. To prompt the city’s inhabitants to stop and consider what the city is made up of. The holes and pockets, the places that exist next to or in-between, the spaces that still serve a purpose and those that have been made into appendixes, traces of past functions.
Ellen Arkbro responds to the call with a sonic intervention which alters our perception of this otherwise unremarkable space. As the work fills the passage, the space is at once condensed and expanded. The sound melds with the mechanical rhythmic beating of the escalator and the constant thrum of traffic from outside while providing an alternative, embodied mode of listening. The terrace is thus remade into sculptural form which unfolds and changes as one moves through it. The sound seeps through the cracks, flowing out in a suggestive invitation to come and discover, and to exist in this place for a while.
In contrast, the terrace itself is insignificant to most. Designed to fit a one-way escalator and a lift, it is a space of pure function which provides the city with much needed accessibility. It serves this purpose but does little else. There is no monumentality, no grandeur, no weight of history. It is next to, near, but ultimately a passive bystander to things bigger than itself. Still, it operates as a part in a vital system designed to ferry people up and down Brunkebergsåsen, the steep ridge that cuts across northern Stockholm.
Here the terrace lies, tucked away. Appearing as a hole in the cityscape, not immediately visible unless you know where to look or if you approach it with purpose. The enclosed emptiness calls out for something to fill it and give it shape: to mark it, amending function with form. To prompt the city’s inhabitants to stop and consider what the city is made up of. The holes and pockets, the places that exist next to or in-between, the spaces that still serve a purpose and those that have been made into appendixes, traces of past functions.
Ellen Arkbro responds to the call with a sonic intervention which alters our perception of this otherwise unremarkable space. As the work fills the passage, the space is at once condensed and expanded. The sound melds with the mechanical rhythmic beating of the escalator and the constant thrum of traffic from outside while providing an alternative, embodied mode of listening. The terrace is thus remade into sculptural form which unfolds and changes as one moves through it. The sound seeps through the cracks, flowing out in a suggestive invitation to come and discover, and to exist in this place for a while.
