TV Trampoline: from children's television to contemporary art and literature
Olivie
Opening of the exhibition on December 8 at 19.00
On December 9, Fabrika Center for Creative Industries presents a collective exhibition of Swedish artists and writers curated by Andjeas Eijksson and Maria Lind "TV Trampoline: from children's television to contemporary art and literature". The exhibition will feature sculptures, comics, videos, installations, a Youtube channel, a real playground, as well as literary texts, one of which has turned into a whole book for children.
What will happen if a modern artist meets the classic Cheburashka, and the writer goes to the legendary Sesame Street? Residents of Moscow will be able to see this at the exhibition "TV Trampoline: from children's television to contemporary art and literature".
Leading Swedish artists and writers have carefully studied eleven international television programs for children that were created in the sixties and eighties and then broadcast on Swedish television. The result was a series of new works of art and literary texts. Among them is a colorful playground inspired by the Yugoslav animated series Professor Balthazar, a series of Sami drums with a reference to the Chinese children's film Monkey King, and a YouTube channel of teenage girls filming their daily lives.
Topics that the authors of the project work with: the power of myth, the work of memory, non-verbal communication, censorship, the persistence of culture, the duality of cute and charming. The exhibition will feature sculptures, comics, videos, installations, a playground, as well as literary texts, one of which has been turned into an entire book for children.
After the end of the exhibition at CCI Fabrika, the project will move to Sweden, where it will be presented at the Kalmar Art Museum and the Art Museum in Umeå.
Programs: "Cheburashka and Crocodile Gena" (USSR), "Sesame Street" (USA), "Mole" (Czechoslovakia), "Pippi Longstocking" (Sweden), "Sand Man" (GDR), "Professor Balthazar" (Yugoslavia) , Newspaper of Fables (Netherlands), Sun Wukong: Trouble in the Heavenly Halls (China), Once Upon a Time...a Man (France), Lost in a Pancake (Sweden) and The Girls Revolt (Sweden).
Curators: Andjeas Eijksson and Maria Lind
The exhibition is supported by the Embassy of Sweden in Russia
Cultural context
Since the end of the 19th century, childhood memories have been one of the central themes in Swedish art and literature. For those who grew up in the 1960s and 1980s, television became one of the treasured memories. Children's television programs of this time shaped entire generations and became significant for the culture.
A priority during the heyday of the welfare state, in the so-called. “record years”, protecting the rights of children and improving their living conditions, including through the availability of quality children's television programs, which were broadcast on the first two Swedish public television channels. In the late 1960s, new themes, broadcast formats, and ways of addressing audiences began to emerge. Famous writers, actors and artists participated in the creation of children's programs, and these programs became important cultural events and the subject of public discussion.
Today, as borders close and children's culture becomes more commercial, it's especially interesting to look at the history of children's television not just as part of cultural heritage, but as a tool for international cultural exchange.
Children's television in Sweden mixed a variety of cultural and political references, connected both sides of the Iron Curtain, and met neutral and non-aligned countries. Television became part of the collective childhood memories for those who grew up in various parts of the world. This period is also notable for the fact that it was then that the traditional logic “public = citizens of one state” was challenged, and international projects began to appear on the screens.
Artists and writers: Petra Bauer, Ida Böriel and Lou Hillarp, Andjeas Eijksson, Annika Eriksson, Jennifer Hayashida, Salad Hiloule, Balsam Karam, Runo Lagomarsino, Behzad Khosravi Nuri, Katarina Pirak Sikku, Olivia Plender.