The art project in Tensta Konsthall, enabled by MeM, is reaching its final steps.
Artist Apolonija Šušteršičs, who was chosen by the Swedish team of art mediators to create an artwork for the project, is currently working on the installation called «Political Classroom» that will be on view in August 2022. The name of the installation comes from the name of the room where it will be presented – Classroom space in Tensta Konsthall. “Political Classroom” is also a title of a book by Diana E.Hess & Paula Mcavoy, discussing democratic education.
«Political Classroom» is a result of several discussions with Swedish MeM participants combined with their research project into the local context of the Tensta neighbourhood.
The meetings between the artist and the Swedish team of art mediators in May 2021 and January 2022, as well as conversations with the locals and initiatives taking place in Tensta, gave the classroom project shape and set its direction.
In the «Political Classroom», Apolonija Šušteršič proposes addressing moments in recent history that influenced the Tensta neighbourhood.
The increasing privatisation within the city of Stockholm has resulted in the recent selling of Tensta Träff and Tensta Gymnasium. These buildings were best known as meeting places for the local community in Tensta and as venues for private, public, and voluntary groups and events. The local community, being deprived of their meeting place, is feeling restless. People are tired of the political system that ignores their voices.
The classroom will be designed as a space where people can sit down and talk freely, with no hierarchies. The conversations should include and address everyone who lives in Tensta and those who have an interest and a sense of responsibility in creating a city with a better future.