wiklundwiklund

The duo merges their architectural, visual and performing arts practice to investigate places through different perspectives with the aim to focus on what distinguishes each place. The work of wiklundwiklund is a collection of expressions and eras where playfulness and seriousness coexist. City planning, architecture, moving patterns, moods and local history are often present in their works.

On view on Havremagasinet, Boden

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24h Messaure, 2024
Performative event in Messaure on 2 February 2024. Mixed media. Variable dimensions.
Installation at Havremagasinet, Boden. Custom-made road sign, photographic print on aluminium, one-channel video projection, archival material.

24h Messaure consists of a performative event that reactivates the no-longer-existing town of Messaure, and an installation combining archival material and new pieces shown at Havremagasinet, Boden. These works convey seven narratives expressing the lives and rhythms of Messaure, crafted by wiklundwiklund and based on personal memories, archival research and conversations with former inhabitants and their family members, and with workers involved in the ongoing construction of a power line at the site.

In the performative event, wiklundwiklund brings light to the town's original site for twenty-four hours, in an homage to the lives tied to Messaure. Each light signals the bygone daily rhythms and personal histories and are placed in the specific locations of the seven narratives. The use of light as the medium alludes to Messaure's pivotal role in supplying nearly half of Sweden's total electricity needs through hydropower.

Situated along the Luleälven, Sweden's primary river for hydropower production, the Messaure power plant dam, built between 1957 and 1963, was one of Europe's largest. For this project, a significant number of workers lived on-site, leading to the organic growth of the town, which accommodated up to 3000 permanent residents and numerous weekly commuters, and provided amenities such as a school, church, grocery stores, library, police station, a people's house with a cinema and dance hall, a gas station, and others.

Over time, the community gradually depopulated, leading to a decline in services and the closure of the school in 1980. Today, all that remains of Messaure is a road sign bearing its name. However, a new life is now brought back to the site through the construction of the “Aurora Line,” a power line connecting Messaure to the Finnish border at Övertorneå municipality. This power line plays a crucial role for the achievement of Europe’s goals for an affordable and sustainable electricity supply, and traverses the municipalities of Gällivare, Boden, and Överkalix, cutting through forests and six Sámi villages. A situation which once again testifies to the complex connection between the resources we consume, the shapes of our built and natural environments, and the fates of those within them.

Katarina Wiklund studied art at Konstfack and the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm. Susanna Wiklund studied architecture at Konstfack and the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, and at HDK-Valand, Gothenburg. The duo’s previous exhibitions include Den fantastiska platsen, SE (2023) and Galerie Toolbox, DE (2017), as well as public works in Borås, Stockholm and Uppsala.