"New Us" (2020)
Prototype of new, public artwork commission, 3 x 2,4 m
At the occasion of the merger of Roan and Åfjord, Carl-Oskar Linné has been invited to develop a new, public artwork commission. The proposal is suggested to be placed on the now erased border, on the highway 715 that connects the two towns. The artwork takes the shape of a neon type LED sign, featuring the coat of arms of Norway, Åfjord and Roan as well as a map. During the research process, it was made clear that earlier municipality mergers easily fell into oblivion, all the while future mergers are on the horizon. The blinking sign illustrates the time in history when these two towns became one, creating a memory of this sensitive situation that is common in many other places than this one. The sign takes inspiration from Denise Scott Brown. Robert Venturi and Steve Izenour's classic "Learning from Las Vegas – The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form". The book contains several indexes of how architecture and signs on The Strip in Las Vegas respond to changes of the viewer's motion. Both Roan and Åfjord are positioned in relation to the road that connects them to each other in a similar way that The Strip cuts through Las Vegas. While The Strip leads out of town and into a vast desert, road 715 instead spans the Atlantic coast, barren mountains, forests, farmlands and fjord beaches and acts as a connection between the towns.
"Just the Two of Us" (2017-2019)
HD video with audio, 9 min 34 sec.
On January 1st 2020, 428 municipalities in Norway become 354. Halfway up the country on the coast, embracing fjords and mountains, is Roan and Åfjord. They are becoming one. During a residency stay in the region, the time for the municipalities' to pick a new name ran out, without the towns being able to agree. In this work, Carl-Oskar Linné follows the naming issue to the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation, through the Language Council of Norway, to a team of naming specialists and into the two municipality buildings and its Mayors. “Just the two of us” is a project observing politics. On the tv there are news. Outside, the storm is rising. We are drinking coffee in the cantine when one door shuts and another opens. Somebody wants to adopt capital punishment. On the radio, they are covering a coup d'état. This weekend there is a Christmas concert, don't forget to buy a ticket.
Film featuring interviews with the two Mayors and footage from the two municipal buildings in two parts, one speaking part and one musical part.
"Nyhetsboble" ("News Bubble") (2017-2019)
HD video with audio, 1 channel 9 min 34 sec / 6 channels, 7 min each
Info screens featuring interviews with representatives of the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation, the Language Council of Norway and a naming specialist as well as news graphics with real local and global news representing a perspective from Åfjord-Roan as well as footage of the artist as a news reporter waiting to go on air.
"No Name" (2019)
Vinyl inkjet print from medium format photo, 100 x 80 cm
Photograph of info screen taken in the municipal building of Åfjord, displaying the news that the right to decide the new name has been given the Ministry of Local Governance and Modernisation.
"Äcklig piazza" ("Disgusting Piazza") (2019)
Drawing on Hahnemulhe photo rag 300g print, walnut frame, 30 x 45 cm, 3 pcs
In this latest series of works by Carl-Oskar Linné, Disgusting Piazza, he picks up an article called "Demolish Skärholmen!". It was published in Dagens Nyheter in 1968, the day after the inauguration of the housing area Skärholmen, just south of Stockholm. A few years prior, the largest decision in Swedish housing politics had been made and the construction of one million new homes was in full swing. The general welfare was not building social housing for the poor, but rather homes everyone had the right to live in. The text is a biting critique of the new district and becomes a turning point in the public debate about the new neighbourhoods being built all over the country. Over the coming years, in a long sequence of articles and opinion pieces, the housing programme's bad reputation is cemented. As an example, in 1970 the book "Rapport Tensta" was released: A book painting an image of a catastrophic situation for the new tenants, living without roads, shops and public transport. The ill repute still stands, some of these areas are today described as the largest problem in Swedish society, while having become the home of a new disenfranchised class of mostly immigrants.
Lövholmen is an area in Liljeholmen south of Södermalm in Stockholm. Soon, another waterfront neo functionalist housing area with an air of recently evicted artists is ground broken, built by subcontractors' subcontractors' subcontractors. Meanwhile, responsible politicians do not want to touch on the question: Who is going to afford to live in homes that are profit maximised on all levels? Large groups of young adults are completely locked out of being able to find a home. The housing bubble inflates. The segregation intensifies.
Property advertisement fills the printed press that is left. Realtor language and real estate tv series' fantasy dwellings take an even harder grip on our visions and hopes of what a home should be. In the 2010s of Sweden, almost all homes are built by three construction companies. Debate articles and statements from self-interested lobby organisations flood the researchers' conclusions about the housing bubble and the need for systemic risk prevention. In Disgusting Piazza, Carl-Oskar Linné has crossed out Skärholmen and replaced it with "Det Nya Lövholmen". The newspaper spread is lined with drawings and words taken from the construction companies' promotional material of the new homes, as they are getting ready to build and sell 3500 condominiums. In the area, zero rental apartments are being built. The Swedish housing debate is distorted and the artist is calling for a new critique, much like the one Lars-Olof Franzén presented in 1968. This is an invitation to reconsider which housing areas are the largest problem in Swedish society.
"Monopol" ("Monopoly") (2018)
HD video with audio, 9 min 44 sec. Here shown as excerpt in collage with the connected multichannel work "News Bubble".
In the spring of 2018, Carl-Oskar Linné spent 2 months at Cité Internationale des Arts through the Swedish Artists' Association. There, he developed the fundament for a new public artwork, specifically for ArkDes' (Sweden’s National Centre for Architecture and Design) exhibition Public Luxury. He gathered source material through digging in visual archives, collecting posters and by visiting housing fairs, protests and realtor offices. In the summer of 2018, the work was shown on the 140 m2 digital billboards at Stureplan in Stockholm.
The work is a spin-off of the artwork Square Meter Price, a work based on interviews with apartment speculators that picks up a new relationship with the home in Sweden. It is increasingly seen as a commodity that is defined by its fiscal value. The new work shows the current square meter price, "raining" downwards as it has dropped slightly for the first time since 2010. On top, a spinning monopoly house and slot machine animation appear. On the middle of the building are blinking phrases used as arguments to take up speculation with home loans, collected at sites where homes are sold in France:
YOU ARE A WINNER – PICK UP YOUR KEYS – CREATE YOUR CAPITAL
A RISK FREE STRATEGY – TO AUGMENT YOUR INCOME – BECAUSE IT COSTS TOO MUCH
Here, Carl-Oskar Linné aims his gaze on the arguments for participating in the market ideology, rather than the arguments against, a method recurrent in several of his artworks.
"Suksessfaktor" ("Success Factor") (2017)
Etched Almenningen marble, 13 x 17 cm
The engraved word "suksessfaktor" is a recurring word in the manual for how to merge municipalities in Norway, written by the public sector consultancy corporation Deloitte. The stone is sourced from the island Almenningen, in one of the two merging municipalities.
"Konge i statsråd" ("King-in-Council") (2017)
Etched alabaster marble, 23 x 14 cm
The engraved symbols are taken from the coat of arms for the two merging municipalities and the state of Norway. The stone is sourced from one of the two merging municipalities.
"It belongs to you 1-4" (2017)
Giclee print on aluminium dibond, 60 x 45 cm, 4 pcs
"I folkets namn" ("In the Name of the People") (2017)
Poster print, 50 x 70 cm, and election night party installation, variable dimensions. Exhibition series about the referendum and its democratic rituals, where the artist group Gruppe 11 performed the role of a political party during an election night party. The exhibitions took place during the running up to and during the general Norwegian election. A televised, actual election night party was held in one of the exhibitions.
Collective project by Gruppe 11. Exhibited in Norway at BOA, Oslo and Bodø Kunstforening/Stormen, Bodø.
"Tillsammans mot 37 miljoner ton" ("Together towards 37 million tonnes") (2016)
Magnetite (iron ore) sculpture with CNC milled and hand carved text. Text from inauguration slogan of a new production level at 1365 m below Kiruna. 30 x 50 x 20 cm.
"Safe-in Safe-out" (2016)
Video, HD. Title from corporate newsletter. 17 min 44 sec. Here shown as excerpt.
"Utvecklingen ska gå hand i hand med avvecklingen" ("Development shall go hand in hand with withdrawal") (2016)
Series of photographs from medium format film. Title from publication from municipality on Kiruna’s urban transformation. Inkjet print, framed, 107 x 130 cm.
"Soft_rock.OTF" (2016)
Typeface created by interpretation of mining company LKAB’s redesigned brand. OpenType font file, 23 kB.
Together Towards 37 Million Tonnes is a project developed during a four-year period, about the mining town Kiruna and the unique symbiosis between a company and a community. Kiruna is one of a few small towns in Sweden that is considered doing well. It is not de-populating and the industry and jobs are fairly stable, in contrast to the region in Skåne where the artist is from that is troubled with de-population, shutting of industries and low grades. In this town, much like in other industrial regions, one single industry provides most jobs as well as its identity and culture. Kiruna is also the site of Europe's largest current construction project. Because of the 100 year excavation in the iron ore mine beneath the city, the city now is being moved to a new location as the ground underneath is crumbling and falling. The title of the work comes from an inauguration slogan of a new production level at 1365 m below Kiruna, effectively forcing this move into action.
In the video and photo works, Carl-Oskar Linné is following the movements created by this pulsating, moving, living city in the top of the country. All titles are from public communication related to the mining business, where the company's communication the last years have been characterised by a strive to display soft values in contrast to the otherwise heavy natural resources industry, which is seen in the use of words such as "safe" and "tillsammans" ("together") and the new rounder version of the previously blocky logotype.
Som framgått av den här sammanfattningen ger utredningen inte svar på alla frågor. Det är å andra sidan kanske inte speciellt överraskande.
"Som framgått av den här sammanfattningen ger utredningen inte svar på alla frågor. Det är å andra sidan kanske inte speciellt överraskande.” ("As shown in this summary the inquiry does not answer all questions. On the other hand that might not be very surprising.") (2015)
Material: text source: "Riksbankens utredning om risker på den svenska bostadsmarknaden” (2011). Advertisement image: Notar och Plus Bolån, “Bli en vinnare på bolånemarknaden”. Screen print in varying colours. Scandia 2000 smooth white 240g, 64 x 90 cm.
Carl-Oskar Linné’s series of prints is a comment on the contrast between profit maximisation behaviour and the handling of financial systemic risks. The source report from Riksbanken successfully identifies risk factors that might lead or have lead to a housing market bubble and the financial channels carrying those risks; the banks, the state and the loan takers. Despite a dangerous situation, in particular for loan takers, the report weakens the message through many hedging terms. These function as noise or mask thereby distracting from the fact that the report concludes that conclusions are impossible to reach and that these systemic risks are something we have to live with.
With his extract from the report, Carl-Oskar Linné highlights the rhetorics dominating housing market politics in Sweden and invites us to reflect on the relationship between the market, its ideology and politics as well as the power of language in this context.
Carl-Oskar Linné previously presented his work “Kvadratmeterpris” on Maretopia; a sign showing the current price per square meter for housing real estate in its vicinity. Indirectly the sign also visualizes a new kind of relationship between owners and their neighbourhood which is dominated by the individual urge to secure a favourable market development of their city district, hence linking market and identity closely together and excluding those who cannot afford or simply do not believe in taking part in this economic logic.
Text: Kristina Lindemann
Exhibited at Färgfabriken in Stockholm, Sweden.
Never Mine
“Bøholmen” and “Copy of Bøholmen” (2013)
Copy of private island dug in sand on public beach. Inkjet on vinyl, 104 x 73 cm
“Gruppe 11 Focus Group” (2013)
Pamphlet 4p (text below), A6
PRIVATE origin: from Latin privatus n. m. ‘private citizen’; privo v ‘deprive’ | ‘rob’ | ‘free’ “ (2013)
Found graphite sample box, painted Gruppe 11-emblem, 106 x 50 cm
“We did not build this country” (2013)
Gray wall text, 8,3 x 1,1 m
Collective project by Gruppe 11. Developed during a residency on the mining island Senja and exhibited at Kurant in Tromsø, Norway.
Mäklare
“Mäklare” (“At this point there are some 6500 agents left”) (2013)
Installation (building facade, billboard screen), variable dimensions. HD video, 18 min 19 sec.
While flicking through a real estate catalogue, Carl-Oskar Linné finds a photograph of his studio building used as promotion for the sales of new apartments under construction in the same block. By interviewing the realtor behind the advertisement, his image of the real estate agent is challenged. He encounters statistics and articles that tell of rising unemployment, low salaries and poor workplace satisfaction. Matters come to a head as the project continues with interviews of former real estate agents, where he encounters even more personal stories. The work ends up being about the flight from the realtor profession, a profession that for many is the ultimate symbol of speculation culture but in fact is exposed to the same vulnerabilities they themselves are associated with. The work is connected to the thesis "Homes, markets, individuals".
MFA graduation project from Konstfack in Stockholm, Sweden.
The Fern Flower
&
Housing Market Risk Report
“The fern flower” (2013)
5 fern plants in terracotta pots, 4 dead plants in glazed and plastic pots, variable dimensions
“Housing market risk report” (2013)
60 copies of the Swedish Riksbank’s housing market risk report (“Sveriges Riksbanks utredning om risker på den svenska bostadsmarknaden”), 20 x 30 x 4 cm each (published 2011)
“The fern flower”, shown in Malmö Konsthall’s exhibition “24 Spaces” in a living room setting, references to the fern plant as a symbol of prosperity and good luck in relation to the home. The title connects to a historic mythology that describes the finding of a flowering fern plant as a symbol of potency and fertility, even though the fern plant is a plant that does not flower. “Housing market risk report” consists of a 2011 report from the Swedish Riksbank about risks on the Swedish housing market, a publication that is featured in the master essay “Homes, markets, individuals” (2013) and in the work “Som framgått av den här sammanfattningen ger utredningen inte svar på alla frågor. Det är å andra sidan kanske inte speciellt överraskande” (“As shown in this summary the inquiry does not answer all questions. On the other hand that might not be very surprising.”) (2015).
Exhibited at Malmö Konsthall in Malmö, Sweden.
Real World or Places That Don’t Exist
“REAL WORLD or places that don’t exist” (2012)
Collaborative project with Marius Moldvær. 216 page b/w book, 12 x 19 cm on Invercote Creato Matt 300g and Scandia 2000 Naturvit 100g, about the sites: The National Archive in Oslo, Gibraltar, American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium, NATO headquarters, Versailles, Le Bon Marché, Ironbound, The Netherlands, Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Exhibited at W37 and Lokalrätten in Stockholm, Sweden.
“Sentralarkivet” (2012)
71 x 47 cm, inkjet print in plexi/aluminium sandwich
“NATO” (2012)
130 x 100 cm, inkjet print in plexi/aluminium sandwich
“Hayden Planetarium” (2012)
83 x 71 cm, inkjet print in plexi/aluminium sandwich
“Bon Marché” (2012)
71 x 47 cm, inkjet print in plexi/aluminum sandwich
“You can't photograph NATO” (2012)
Excerpt from "Real World or Places That Don't Exist
Non-Fiction
“Non-fiction Norge” (2011)
Black vinyl text on window, 40 x 25 cm
“Non-fiction Norge 2” (2012)
Text, inkjet print, archival matte 160g, stage light, 167 x 107 cm
“Non-fiction Malmö” (2012)
Text, inkjet print, coated glossy paper 140g, 46 x 64 cm
Series of work using statistics in combination with fictional texts exploring connections between private and public spheres. Accompanying lecture performances held at Konstfack, Stockholm and Broadway Media Arts, Nottingham.
Exhibited at UKS in Oslo, Norway, Bergen Kjøtt in Bergen, Norway and Cirkulationscentralen in Malmö, Sweden.
Kvadratmeterpris
“Kvadratmeterpris” (“Square meter price”) (2011-2018)
Prototype on proposal for public, digital and interactive sign that shows the current square meter price for housing in the nearby area, 1 x 1 x 2 m. Shown at, among other sites, Färgfabriken in Stockholm, Sweden. Video below from installation in Gröndals Båtklubb in connection to artist talk with Jens Evaldsson and Sarah Guarino Florén as part of the Maretopia programme, 2015.
"Kvadratmeterpris" is based on interviews with housing speculants in Tollare in Nacka, a housing area that will be finished in 2020. At Carl-Oskar Linné's first visit in 2010, his questions was about life goals, the sense of belonging and the role of art among housing. At that time, ten years ahead of moving in, Linné had an idea about that the speculants would have a clear vision of their and the area's future. Instead, the answers solely circled around money. "Kvadratmeterpris" shows the current square meter price in the immediate vicinity of the sign (in collaboration with Svensk Mäklarstatistik).
Hem
“HEM” (“HOME”) (2012)
Gypsum sculptures resembling 27 detached villas and three large apartment blocks (two high rises and one low block), consisting of 124 blocks, total dimension 3 x 8 m. Series of colour medium format photographs, matte inkjet print, 35 x 28 cm.
Exhibited at Sven-Harrys in Stockholm, Sweden and Knipsu in Bergen, Norway. BFA graduation project from Bergen National Academy of Arts in Norway.
115 4X
115 4X (2011)
Colour medium format photograph, white/MDF frame, 50 x 50 cm. Three wood shelves with model of a chimney, two miniature cardboard boxes with styrofoam insert and one express package for gold sales (not pictured). Total dimensions ca 2 x 1 m.
Exhibited at Wizard Gallery in Oslo, Norway.
Alla platser finns nu
“Alla platser finns nu” ("All Places Exist Now") (2012)
Small format colour photograph, 10 x 15 cm and wooden stick sculpture 10 x 15 x 15 cm.
Exhibited at Sven-Harrys in Stockholm.