Acts of Self Ruin is a two year research programme at Marabouparken, exploring the struggle for collectivity and equality in an age of individualism. Through a range of activities including exhibitions, residencies and a public programme, we will explore acts in which communities and individuals have put themselves at risk or ruin in the pursuit of other ways of living, or in pursuit of equality and solidarity. Acts that might produce shame or embarrassment in their deviation from existing hierarchies: acts of communal inefficiency, of professional disloyalty, of solidarity with a persecuted colleague or the rejection of national identity. The research investigates not only overtly public political acts but also personal acts of self ruin. In what ways do we unlearn the encouraged subconscious individualistic ideology and its inherent classist, racist and sexist perpetuations? Acts of Self Ruin is a concept explored by Leela Gandhi in her book The Common Cause (2014) and informs this inquiry. The book proposes different forms of solidarity and community developed through acts of self-ruination. Acts aimed at making common the cause between individuals across cultural, political and class divides.
Acts of Self Ruin
Advisory Group
Elof Hellström works as course assistant at the course Decolonizing Architecture at KKH, as well as doing collaborative research-based artistic processes. He is part of SIFAV (The South Districts Institute for Other Visions), working on issues around the city and commons, and mdgh, investigating civil rights in relation to ownership in the build environment. Elof is since 2007 also active in Cyklopen where he is part of arranging recurring events with text, art and music.
www.cyklopen.se www.sifav.org www.mdgh.se
Shahram Khosravi is Professor at Stockholm University and Uppsala University. He has written many books and articles focused on migration and asylum politics and experience including, The Illegal Traveler: An Auto-Ethnography of Borders (2010); and After Deportation, Ethnographic Perspectives (2017).
Marie-Louise Richards is an architect and founder of Madam Arkitekt where her recent work explores ‘hyper-visible invisibility’. She works as the Assistant Curator of Arkdes and is a lecturer at KTH on the KTH in Tensta programme.
Selam Tadele works in Sundbyberg Stad as the integration co-ordinator for the Culture and Leisure department. Here she works with different local groups and initiatives to build collaborations and develop the support the commune can provide to its residents.