EKOTOP: Sampo (2019)
4K-video, stereo sound, 13:00.
Plasma cut steel, scaffolding.

Exhibited at the show EKOTOP, Gävle Konstcentrum.

 



On one side the flour is grinding,
On another salt is making,
On a third is money forging,
And the lid is many-colored.
Well the Sampo grinds when finished,
To and fro the lid in rocking,

Grinds one measure at the day-break,
Grinds a measure fit for eating,
Grinds a second for the market,
Grinds a third one for the store-house.

From Kalevala Rune X, Translated by John Martin Crawford (1888).






What makes us want to look further than the stratosphere, dig deeper down in the crust, program technique to go beyond our own cognizance or renounce reality?

With a takeoff from the mining industry in the northern part of Sweden - exploring the nationalist socialist legacy of a state owned industry and formation of the nuclear family to digital mining, crypto currencies and app-economies. Materials in becoming, moving cities, bodies in-between and how privatization paves the way for global capitalist intentions to outcrop new mining designs in an indigenous protected landscape.

Following the narrative and cycle of steel production (i.e production of the state) – from mining, crushing, grinding, liquid separation, floating, pyro-technology, filtration, casting, distribution to the flux of goods. I examine a post-fordist socialist landscape in the becoming of a digital bio cycle, appropriated by automated cybernetic labor.




Stills from video.


THANKS TO:
Lina Selander
Björn Larsson
Norrbottens Minne
Göran Svennborn
Esther Ericsson
Dennis Härämä
Gävle Konstcentrum