Exhibition at prince of Wales Museum in Bombay November 2009

Artists: Stefan Canham & Rufina Wu, Francesco Jodice, Maria Lantz, Anna Erlandson, Johan Rutherhagen, Michele Masucci & Sofia Wiberg, Erik Rosshagen & David Herdies, Monika Marklinger, Johan Widén

Curatorial team: Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Anna Erlandson, Maria Lantz, Michele Masucci

“The space of the city is a far more concrete space for politics than that of a nation. It becomes a place where non-formal political actors can be part of the political scene in a way that is much more difficult at the national level. National politics needs to run through the existing formal systems: whether the electoral political system or the judiciary.”

(Sassen, Saskia, Global City: Strategic Site/ New Frontier
in the book Dharavi - Documenting Informalities,
Academic Foundation, New Delhi, 2009.)

In official, formalized, national politics, informal actors are often invisible; but in the city they cannot be ignored. Regardless of legal status, sheer numbers create visibility. And the city is also dependent on the informal functions at its core. With this exhibition we want to puncture the presupposition that “slum” is mere desperation and chaos and affirm the warmth, creativity and organizational capacity that we have experienced in slums around the world. We want to show that what happens in informal settlements is not just the concern of the local government.

Our project can be described as investigations into how art and architecture can contribute to social and political discussions. We have concrete goals: to increase knowledge about informal living in cities all over the world; to suggest more participatory, complex and inclusive descriptions of the urban poor; and to work toward increased infrastructure in informal areas by searching for new collaborations and networks. By allowing the voice of the informal to speak, we hope to the build an inclusive space for negotiation and communication, one that exists outside the traditional contexts of contemporary art.

Artworks in the exhibition:
The formal citizen is connected to a place, an address. Documents identify, secure and formalize this connection. This way, the “identified body” is under control, secured to a place by the governor, but also tied to its ruler. Maria Lantz’s large-format photographs Informalities reveal different informal structures from all over the world. Places beyond formal structure are where refugees, dwellers, workers, nomads and dreamers gather. The images portray stigmatised and yet tempting, law-less but controlled, poor - and sometimes very rich. Through her images we see that informal structures can mean violence and dictatorship but also hard struggles, deep democracy, pride, and possibilities. Anna Erlandsons photographically based work tells a story about a community that are forcely evicted from their settlement under a bridge at Mindanao Avenue, Philippines. The title No sari sari only sorry sorry refers to the informal sari sari stores which is a common livelihood for many women in the slums of Manila. After the eviction to the remote outskirts of the city, the community now face hardships to find any kind of income.

Moving too fast in the wrong direction by graphic designer Johan Rutherhagen, presents us with statistics and hard facts on souring CO2, urbanization, and population growth. These graphs visualise the consequences of urbanisation and industrialisation and Mankind’s exploitation of finite resources.

Michele Masucci & Sofia Wiberg have produced a film, Fragments from Dharavi, which takes us through the alleys of Dharavi at the heart of Mumbai. Guided by Preema and Shenaz who work for the organisation Mahila Milan (Women Together) the artists take us through the rich variety of activities taking place in the area.

Francesco Jodice’s film installation Sao Paulo Citytellers is a video installation in a series that thematises the phenomenon of self-organisation in mega-cities. In Erik Rosshagen & David Herdies’ Getwakera, Kibera, one camera moves along the railway tracks that run through Kibera, one of the largest shanty-towns in Africa, and another shows sections from the shoot – displaying the environment outside the frame. There are also several soundtracks. Through interviews, facts, and people’s stories we find out more about the location, and the juxtaposition of abstract expertise and lived experiences.

Monika Marklinger´s drawings from Dharavi, previously reproduced in the book Dharavi: Documenting Informalities are an attempt by the artist to intertwine her own individual language with the reproducible expressions of society. By challenging the implicit claims for veracity in photographs through her drawings, Monika blurs the limit between documentation and fictitious representation, creating new outlooks on informal society that host both hopelessness and dreams.

Informal/Illegal settlements of the Djinn, by Johan Widén is a collection of drawings, photographs and watercolours from informal, perhaps secret and invisible settlements in the Middle East. His works attempt to convey the atmosphere of these places on a more existential level.

Portraits from Above by Rufina Wu & Stefan Canham is a technically outstanding documentation of Hong Kong's informal rooftop communities that provides us a thorough investigation of these structures. Through detailed architectural drawings, photographs and texts, the otherwise invisible informal societies on the rooftops of one of the World’s largest cities can be understood as an integral part of the city.