Conversation between Nina Svensson, Bernd Krauss and Mirja Majevski (for TENSTA KONSTHALL)

Mirja Majevski: Can you start by describing the project Tensta Horse Racing Society.

Bernd Krauss: What we are showing here, at the Museum of Medieval Stockholm is in a

way a shop window that presents the various activities of Tensta Horse Racing

Society. The name is an umbrella under which we’ve collected several pedagogical

projects that we’ve carried out during the last 12 months in Tensta, Sundsvall and

Jakobstad (FI).

Nina Svensson: The format of the display makes a nod towards the didactics of the

museum. The installation consists, among other things, of betting shop receipts casted in

aluminium, foam rolls from the summer camp that were used as carriers, some dust

from Solvalla racetrack in Stockholm, and portraits (membership plates) of kids wearing

big sunglasses that are typical for race driver. In other words numerous elements that

mark a connection to the reality and talk about how things were or could have been.

MM: Out of all things, why trot?

NS: It all started in 2006 with my Art Academy graduation project, where I turned the

café of the Umeå Bildmuseet into a betting shop for trot. From there on both Bernd and I

have continued to collect trotting related material and inquire into the sport. Also,

having spent time in the countryside, in connection to our pervious projects, we’ve come

to notice how you can always speak about trot – like you speak about the weather – as it

is common ground for everybody.

BK: We are also interested in the way that trot is connected to identity building. Trotting

here in Sweden is mainstream culture. It is a tool for cutting trough and understanding

the society, the world, material, whatever you are facing.

MM: Simultaneously with Tensta Horse Racing Society you are showing another

trotting related installation, The only thing we/you are world’s best at, at Tensta

konsthall. How do these two works relate to each other?

BK: There is a structural link. From the moment we knew about having two places to

exhibit we wanted to make sure that both installations could work without needing to

be legitimated by one and other. Thereby, after the summer camp and our other

pedagogical events we created Tensta Horse Racing Society as an umbrella to gather

our trot related educational projects. With the title The only thing we/you are world’s

best at we anchored convoluted material into the bigger framework of the exhibition

Tensta Museum dealing with terms of cultural heritage and making a statement about

the New Sweden.

MM: How does the context of the Museum of Medieval Stockholm resonate within your

work?

BK: We would like to put Tensta, part of the landscape and extended understanding of

the city, on the map by using trot to inform the audience. The installation is used as a

tool to communicate our activities and this brings us to the field of mediation.

NS: The Museum of Medieval Stockholm is very proud of its pedagogic program.

Pedagogical approach is also at the very core of Tensta Horse Racing Society.

Additionally there is a link to the long tradition of people using horses for both work and

leisure. After all how trot as a sport came to be, was that on Sundays people raced each

other to church. You could see this as the beginning of people wanting to have fun and

spend time with horses.

MM: What are your thoughts about public. How would you like to see your work being

approached?

NS: We don’t want to pose as an authority. We want people to come along and approach

our work like a study circle, to think: “Ok, I can catch something from the video, I

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recognize the poster from the ATG” – at least that is what I personally want to receive

from an artwork.

BK: The problem is that a work of art is expected to mean something else that what you

see. I think you, as an individual, should be able to react to an artwork and find a way to

your own expression. What I want is to claim territories for freedom of aesthetic space

in society, space where things can happen that are not predefined by my work or by

choice of other things, spaces that are meant for individuals that want to come in, with

whatever background they have and find an opportunity for possible encounters. That is

the utopian space I want to speak about. I think that it is getting more and more harder

for museums to open up the mechanism and be that kind of spaces. Instead it feels like

this is happening through a pedagogical framework. In these kind of situations we have

been very free, much freer that when making artistic work. And that is interesting. That

suddenly you can feel the territory where there is a blind spot where things can happen.

Ultimately what I am trying to establish is a different understanding of what a work not

needs to be.

MM: You often rework elements from your previous projects and incorporate them to

new installations. Could you say that this a way to form a continuous thread that runs

trough your entire oeuvre?

BK: I think the world should move beyond looking at works within given parameters of

an oeuvre. This is a historic way to place an artwork. The contemporary needs to have

different parameters for discussing and looking. You should be able to enter at whatever

point and just face the work. If it is a layout where you need to first find out what these

things meant before and what is the relation between this point and that point then we

are in the old iconography again.

MM: The two of you have been working together since 2006. Both of you have also

employed collaborative tactics in your substantial individual practise. How was it that

this came to be and what, from your opinion, are the benefits of the collaborative

approach?

BK: You can do things together that you could not do by yourself. By sharing

responsibility and becoming a projected author you can have the freedom to experiment

with structural solutions. I would also consider loosing yourself as a key to learning and

seeing the world.

NS: Collaboration is for us a way to take people seriously as we want to spend time

doing activities together, to really be present. Take for example Johan who works as a

technician at Tensta konsthall. Tree days before the opening of the exhibition Tensta

Museum he was telling us that he is going to a bachelor party at the Solvann racetrack.

We immediately asked if he could take document the event so that we could include it to

the installation The only thing we/you are world’s best at. We asked him to

participate and presented his contribution in a serious manner.