Even in that Muddy Canal Water there is a Piece of the Ocean
Performance in and around the canal in Gothenburg city centre
Starting at 3pm, August 14th, 2007
Assistant: Ulf Davidson
On the day of the opening of the Floating exhibition, I went into the water. My assistant was in a rubber boat near me in the water. For my safety. Then I swam as far as I could; not very far, it would turn out. About 300 meters. I had officially stated that I was heading to the ocean.
Inspired by the book "Happy Sally" by Sara Stridsberg, the ocean is to me the symbol of the neverending, a nomansland free from rules and bondings. The book is about Sally Bauer, the first woman to cross the Brittish Canal in 1939. It deals a lot with the human will to work as a machine, but also with the technology of failure in a world of achievements, and the contempt of the weak.
To find the ocean in the muddy canal water was to find the meditative in the act of swimming in the polluted canal. To make a space of ones own.
To head for the ocean and to fail; to ignore that. To ignore being weak. To be exposed to the gaze of the public, and to make an effort to live up to the demans of that gaze. But to return that gaze by ignoring the final destination (the ocean).
Click HERE for the webpage of the Floating exhibition 2007.