Blandstadens taktik

Blandstadens taktik (Mixed City Tactics) was a group exhibition from seven local artists, with new works based on the ongoing development of Sofielund's industrial area.

The works presented were produced in an exploratory process where CSAM and the artists have gathered several times over the past year to discuss the concept of the mixed city and the role and space of culture in the development of the city.

During the process, many questions have been asked and explored: Can including artistic readings of the city create new perspectives on planning? Can they form new ways of talking about, experiencing and describing a place that is in a formative stage of the development process? Who is allowed to interpret what the city is and can be? Who gets to highlight or withhold information when the story of the future city is written? How does the language and drawings of urban planning documents work to exclude those not in the know?

The passage of time is both a challenge and an asset as the city changes. What can we discover, capture and learn if we give ourselves more time to understand a place and its life? Who is it that needs to stop and immerse themselves? How can an in-depth study be given the opportunity to form the development? Above all: how can we take time to understand what is there and what could come in the future?

A “cultural sound zone” has been established at Sofielund. That it is specifically the sound of culture highlighted in the current planning is symptomatic of our time. The new sound zone means that manufacturing, repairs, bread baking and more can carry on and be developed, yet culture takes center stage.

Sometimes it can feel unclear who the players are behind the process. Who are the authors and recipients of planning and development? Who are the planners? Who is it planned for? What role does art play in the development of the city? How should we as “value creators” relate to the elevated role of art and culture? How do our actions affect others' opportunities to participate and be seen?

These discussions have resulted in seven original works inspired by the questions of language, time, power and authorship. Seven new layers of interpretation of Sofielund. Together, they offer the spectator a deep dive into the city's sounds, materials and tactile expressions. They recount the architectural history of the neighborhood and articulate invisible urban boundaries.

The exhibition does not capture all of what Sofielund is and can become. It represents seven individual views and could be augmented ad infinitum. The more people involved in how and on what terms our city changes, the better.

CSAM works at the intersection of art, policy development and architecture. Our aim is to explore contemporary urban development mechanisms and the stories that support them by working with local artists and civil society in processes rooted in Malmö.