Moving through the archive: Johnny Chang & MayDay Rooms

–> A Look at Critical Archiving and Organizing Access <–

Welcome to an evening, 2/6 5-8 PM, of thinking together on the possibilities of organizing archives and libraries from multiple perspectives. This program examines how different forms of gathering, especially from and for movements as well as marginalized communities generate various forms of agency, resistance, and collective un/learning processes. What are the various approaches, possibilities, and limitations of these practices?

Moving through the archive_ invites Johnny Chang and MayDay Rooms to discuss how knowledge can be collected from informal, critical, dissident perspectives. Through a lecture performance by Johnny Chang, and a public presentation by MayDay Rooms, we invite the public to reflect on the possibilities and limitations of collective, interdependent forms of gathering.

Elof Hellström, from Hägerstensåsens Medborgarhus, will moderate an open conversation after the presentations.

_ JOHNNY CHANG is a Taiwanese-American multidisciplinary designer and artist based in Stockholm. Moving between visual communication, writing, and artistic inquiry, his practice is concerned with circumstances of distance and diaspora, the politics of voice and listening, and processes of sense-making. His work inquires into conditions and entanglements of contemporary everyday life toward cultivating resilient capacities for sensing, feeling, and being in the present. His current residency research with Grafikens Hus is engaged with differently situated archives and libraries to investigate aesthetics of gathering, and terms and methods of access from urgent perspectives.
www.johnny-chang.info

_ MAYDAY ROOMS aims to safeguard histories and documents of radicalism and resistance by connecting them with contemporary struggle and protest, and by developing new free forms of dissemination and collective self-education. Our building contains an archive of historical material linked to radical history. Alongside our material archives, we create and maintain digital archives and databases of these histories, with the hope that these traces of the past might freely be taken up and put to use in present struggles. As well as housing an archive, our building functions as an organizing space for activists, social movements, troublemakers and radicals. We also run a full programme of events including film screenings, poetry readings, archiving workshops, historical talks, discussions, reading groups and social nights.
www.maydayrooms.org

_ ELOF HELLSTRÖM’s work addresses issues of socio-political injustice in the contemporary city. He has initiated and is a member of various art collectives and self-organized initiatives such as the cultural house Cyklopen in Stockholm. Elof is one of the artistic directors at Hägerstensåsens Medborgarhus.
www.medborgarhuset.se

–> The program is a collaboration between Collecting Thoughts/Grafikens Hus, A Movement to Hold and Hägerstensåsens Medborgarhus. Curated by Macarena Dusant/Grafikens Hus and Alba Folgado/A Movement to Hold. In collaboration with IASPIS. With support from Kulturrådet.

–> Accessibility

The event will take place in the library room on the ground floor of Hägerstensåsens Medborgarhuset. Medborgarhuset has a lift which makes the upper floor accessible as well. There are no obstructive steps on the ground floor of the building. There are larger wheelchair-accessible and gender-neutral toilets on both the ground floor and the upper floor. There will be other occasional visitors to other events in the house at the same time.

The event will be in English.
Keywords and translations will be available in Swedish.

If you would like to speak to someone prior to your visit to discuss your access needs, please contact: info@medborgarhuset.se

Find your way there:
Hägerstensåsens Medborgarhus
Riksdalervägen 2, 129 32 Hägersten
Subway station: Hägerstensåsen

”Vid skrivandets stund är vi i slutet av april och känslan av vårens intåg känns i luften, inte minst då ljuset börjar vända tillbaka till oss. Inom Samlande tankar/Collecting thoughts har jag ägnat mig åt ansökningar för att kunna möjliggöra samarbeten och evenemang. Att skriva ansökningar innebär att tänka vart projektet kan ta vägen men även att gå tillbaka till hur projektet formulerats och mer konkret se hur det utvecklas.” 

Läs processledare och curator Macarena Dusants månadsbrev #10: SvenskaEnglish

Samlande tankar / Collecting Thoughts är ett projekt som genomförs av Grafikens Hus med ett treårigt stöd av Kulturrådet. 

Johnny Chang

Vårt arbetande expertråd vägleder Samlande Tankar filosofiskt, teoretiskt och praktiskt och engagerar konstnärer genom Artist-in-Residence. Nu presenterar vi Johnny Chang.

He is a Taiwanese-American multidisciplinary designer and artist based in Stockholm. Moving between visual communication, writing, and artistic research, his practice is concerned with circumstances of distance and diaspora, the politics of voice and listening, and processes of sense-making. Through visual culture, publication making, and collaborative and performative methods of reading, he investigates ways of listening and voicing toward cultivating resilient capacities for sensing, feeling, and being in the present. He studied at ArtCenter College of Design (BFA, US) and Konstfack (MFA, SE). Occasionally teaches at Konstfack and Stockholm University.

Han kommer också att vara residencekonstnär som en del av Samlande Tankar.

”Nu är vi på väg mot slutet av detta år och jag har precis landat efter en vistelse i det globala syd, Chile. När jag rörde mig i huvudstaden Santiago blev jag påmind om hur den visuella konsten har använts som ett självklart uttrycksmedel inom sociala rörelser.”

Läs processledare och curator Macarena Dusants månadsbrev #9: Svenska English

Samlande tankar / Collecting Thoughts är ett projekt som genomförs av Grafikens Hus med ett treårigt stöd av Kulturrådet.