“The narrator in the film is Thomas Kwame Awarija, who has slept for the past three years accompanied by rats under a loading bay. He is now being forced to move on. He represents people who want to contribute: work, provide for his family, live a respectable life”, says Erik Pauser.
The House has been created by Erik Pauser and Cecilia Parsberg, working with architects Haval Murad and David Martinez Escobar. The film is cut and edited by Johan Söderberg. Söderberg also created the film music.
They are together behind the A Place in Europe project.
“We want to set up The House in public spaces in urban centres to bring the situation to people’s attention, and include those who are hoping for a better life so that they can become a part of the dialogue”, Cecilia Parsberg and Erik Pauser tell us.
Installed in Norrköping
The film sculpture The House began its journey in Odenplan in Stockholm and has subsequently been displayed in Örebro and Karlstad. It has spent the past two months outsideThe House at Odenplan in Stockholm.
the Stockholm School of Economics on Sveavägen in Stockholm. Seminars dealing with poverty, welfare, migration and hopelessness have been arranged in association with the art event. The House will be placed on Bredgatan in Norrköping, between Täppan and Kåkenhus, from 19 September. The exhibition is being arranged in collaboration with the Lobby art project, at REMESO, Linköping University, and will remain in place until 28 October.
“During the past three years, Lobby has shone a spotlight onto questions of refugees with the aid of contemporary Swedish and international artists. These are questions we work with at LiU. A Place in Europe is the latest of a number of artworks, and is particularly interesting since it focusses on a location in Sweden showing how people can fall through the cracks, even here – in hopeless and dangerous situations. Taking the piece outdoors and placing it into a public space is well in tune with our ambition that Lobby should stand on the border between research and the surrounding society. Art should invite dialogue,” says Erik Berggren, project manager for Lobby.
Lobby is a project in collaboration and research communication started at REMESO, LiU, with financial support from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.
Discussion about the work
Friday 25 September at 19:00 the artists will briefly present and discuss their work, outside on Bredgatan.
Translation by George Farrants.
