Project 5 * Boxing and Unboxing
Contents
Terms and Conditions of working with institution
In order to reach clarity about the mutual expectations concerning the five months research residency AND, together with Marabouparken curator Jenny Richards, developed a document titled 'terms and conditions' and a related contract between the artists and the institution. That document was regularly revised and adapted over the course of the residency. Selected points discussed in this document referred to "visibility on our own terms" (images, announcements, framing), public engagement, transparent budget.
Set of posters
A set of four posters were printed and circulated in the imminent neighbourhood and across Stockholm. Translated into Swedish, English, Arabic and Tigrinya (the two biggest ethnic groups in the area of the Konsthall), they announced two weeks of boxing training for women, girls, trans and non-binary people in order to learn more about non-verbal negotiation, care, anger, dialogue, transgressions and defence. The boxing classes were free and open for all abilities, ages (16+), shapes and religions and were an experiment to learn to relate to each other and to negotiate the many conflicts and contradictions which shape our living and working together.
Boxing classes
For the boxing classes Stockholm based boxers Sofia Thorne and Airin Fardipour have been invited to develop a two week intense course for beginners. The boxing classes took place at 'Project Playground', an after school club for immigrants in Hallonbergen. The course taught lets of technique, the basic moves and punches, as well as extensive sparring and body contact work and finished with a one-round fight competition.
'Unboxing Calendar', published by AND Publishing London / MarabouParken Konsthall, Stockholm, 2018
A calendar with 52 weekly pages containing collectively with the boxers' produced visuals. The collages result from a one-day workshop, where we tried to revisit the spirit and adventures during the boxing classes and to articulate visually the experiences, that could not easily be verbalised. The visuals in the calendar are accompanied by a text written by Ar Parmacek, at the time intern at MarabouParken Konsthall, which reflects some of the concerns of the project from her perspective of an co-organiser and observant. Choosing the form of a calendar as publication genre aims to embed its issues and contents into everyday life. A year of daily boxing and unboxing.
