An exhibition by Karin Erixon

In the exhibition Sociotope map, artist Karin Erixon presents several works based on an artistic field study of a forest area in the crown area in Luleå. The work is based on dialogues with schoolchildren at Tallkronan School, and several of her works are created together with her own children who also live in the area. The exhibition period is activated through various activities for children, such as a workshop and reading of the book Gropen written children’s book author Emma Adbåge.

Opening hours:

Tuesdays at 12-15
Wednesdays at 18-20
Saturdays 12-15

Vernissage June 6 at 11-14 (inaugural speech at 12)

SOCIOTOPKARTA — LAND AREA, PROPERTY AND ALL THE CHILDREN

The history of the playground is characterized by an insoluble contradiction. On the one hand, modernity has conceptualized the game as a biologically inherited operation that is spontaneous, enjoyable and free. The highly valued subjective experience of play; A characteristic of the autonomous, individual self. On the other hand, modern society has rationalized and shaped children’s play on the basis of promoting social, educational and political goals.

A sociotope map can look in many different ways, the main goal is to map different types of sociological phenomena. For example, they can be used to identify an area that needs support or transformation and is used in research and planning. City planners and real estate professionals are a crucial role, where a variety of interests result in facilitating and controlling the children’s play. Adults and parents feel safe, and the children are provided with good and useful play areas. The playground’s motives are based on the game having a form of need for monitoring. In modern areas, in illuminated communities, well -planned playgrounds increase both the land value and the tax revenue.

In the crown area in Luleå, the artist has studied how the children play in a forest area next to the school, an area that the adults have decided that no children may play on. What happens to the spontaneous autonomous game that arises in the forest? Many children who go to school break free from the hypermodern playground in the school yard offer. The children are looking for the free place that appeals to free play, play free of rules, pedagogy and surveillance from adults. This paradox can be seen as a result of the complex relationship between children’s needs and the political and educational goals that exist in modern society. The focus of this study is primarily about the children’s relationship with the place, and the place’s relationship with the children’s play, seen from an aesthetic and sociological perspective.

“The pit is behind the gym. Someone removed a lot of gravel there in the past, now it is growing and stumps and you can be there and play. For any length of time, as fun games as possible. Everyone loves the pit – except the adults. They hate the pit! ” From children’s book author Emma Adbåge’s award -winning book Gropen.

BIOGRAPHY — Karin Erixon

Karin Erixon is an artist and curator with MA in visual art from the Art University in Oslo, Khio. In her artistic work, mainly focuses on text, painting and sculpture, often through various collective processes. She herself describes her works as poetic narratives where she often links cultural, literary, art historical references to reproduce new stories with new compositions. Through the use of allegory, symbolism, recurring social structures are embodied, political issues in relation to the private sphere.

Over the years, she has run several independent workshops, reading groups, collective projects and been the initiator of several artist collective and workplaces for artists during her years in Oslo. In collaboration with Cassius Fadlabi, Karin Erixon founded Khartoum Contemporary Art Center in 2016, an artist -driven cultural center in Oslo with a strong interdisciplinary program focused on Africa and the Middle East, which today acts as a platform without a physical place. Together with Maria Erixon, she is also active with the collective project Mother’s Hage in Bensbyn.

Since 2022, Erixon has been living in Luleå. She moved to Norrbotten to work on cultural pedagogical projects for children and young people through the association Kubn. Today, in addition to artist, Erixon is active as artistic director at the Art Hall, Kulturkenshus, Luleå.