Installation

During the winter and spring of 2012, anyone visiting Krögarvägen in Fittja could see colored dots on the building façades.

Between September 2011 and June 2012, we invited 65 residents to put a color of their choice on their satellite dishes in exchange for a visit to their home and a conversation. The hardest part was findig participants, but we eventually got to meet people by attending resident association meetings, conducting workshops with young people, working with local organizations, and just meeting people on the street.The most effective strategy was living in the neighborhood for two months, and understanding this community from the inside.

The on-site installation became a collective endeavor where each participant played a vital role. Artist and participant shared the same goal in the project – to lift Fittja from years of physical deterioration and neglect, to change the perception of this locality both from inside and outside, and stimulate community participation from the bottom up.

The hospitality was tremendous, people were very receptive to the idea and many of them recommended their friends, family and neighbors to participate. The installation slowly emerged, one colored dot at a time, as fast as we could progress withe meeting people, arranging meetings, producing the textile covers (which is how the satellite dishes get “colored”), and installing them.

From this conversation a story emerges, and this compilation of stories and messages to the world are linked to each colored dot on an interactive map of the area. Each dot on the façade then tells a story, as a signal that is sent out from the antenna back to the sky. On site, we see many colors along the façades, and on the map we understand how each dot relates to one another.

Read the messages to the sky