WHITE NIGHTS IN TRONDHEIM
The city, by definition, is a being in continuous movement. I'm not only talking about people that evidently move, cars that run through the city streets, buildings that appear or disappear, neighbourhoods changing their purposes, or populations displacing others. I'm also thinking about how the ways in which we perceive the city transform it. In the construction of a public space, in its ongoing dispute, there is a memory and a future. In this task, in the construction of a shared space, images play a crucial role. Moving images, images of power, images that propose new ideas, images of resistance, images depicting customs and lifestyles, dirty images, plump, radiant, noisy, boring or rowdy. Some images build imaginaries, but only a few are recorded in our memory. And imaginaries not only embody our perception of the city, they also build it.
I came to Trondheim invited by Trygve and Charlotte, tireless members of the RAKE project. Upon arrival, I was offered a tremendous gift: a good deal of films made by students of this city. As you know, the people of Trondheim are mostly students: either actual students, or former or prospective ones. The University occupies nearly half the town's area. And Trondheim's university students always organize a big party, the UKA. This party is so important that since the 20s, films have been produced to promote it and construe a collective memory. What these films show is that, with this excuse, students literally occupy the city streets. All films have a similar structure. In first place, we see a parade, where the different university departments pass by branding all sorts of banners, as well as para-theatrical constructions, mostly accompanied by slogans and other writings: tramways, trains, boats, cars, rockets, sputniks, atomic bombs, robots, hospitals, monsters, television aerials or chemical laboratories, highways and trolls, among others.
These student parades, that took place between the 20s and the late 80s, bequeath us some clues of this period. This finally forms a collection of outspoken icons, some celebratory, others sarcastic, which often openly bespeak conflict. What strikes the most is their force, being real crowd-pullers. Thousands of people flocked to watch these quite rudimentary parades, no matter whether under the sun or the snow. Compared to the present ways of doing, these methods appear really archaic: to walk around the town carrying shoddily made objects and being marvelled by all this. Perhaps the question now would be: after leaving the streets, would it not be time to win them back and inhabit the desert? Isn't it time for those who have an idea of community, to deploy it, to weigh it and to make it visible to the entire city? Isn't the Svartlamon district a project of a different kind of city? In recent weeks we tested these questions. We tried to create new images, using these former practices as a pretext.
In the same city of Trondheim, between the highway and the sea, there is this 3-storey wooden tower with a staircase to its top. Sjobadet bathers like strong emotions, experiencing at the city limits with the limits of their own bodies. Bathing in cold water, crashing their skeletons from very high or sunbathing their whole bodies. These practices have become a tradition, several generations spending their time in the vicinity of this tower. Sjobadet bathers have come to develop a sophisticated alphabet of gestures and signs, only revealed to a few.
There is also a parking lot built in the cheerful 60s, a small cathedral of the modernistic religion, condemned to demolition. In its slumber it still filters efficiently the light over the rectangular plots. RAKE's proposal is to open its doors to the people so as to show that it could be used in many different ways. For my part, I contributed some images. I believe that the RAKE people and their friends are changing the city.
Jordi Colomer
Trondheim, August, 2014.
HVITE NETTER / WHITE NIGHTS (info&images PDF)
JORDI COLOMER
Svartlamon Parade
2014
Video colour
Master HD CAM
15' loop, Sound Stereo
Parade: Sjur Eide Aas, Eli Allen, Carles Angles, Tuva April, Astri Bakken, Randi Bakken, Lea Beiskjær, Sven Bertu, Vilde Blom, Greta Flones, Elisabeth Fume, Mari Gjertsen, Marita Grondsen, Martin Grottum, Pierre Harlès, Sunniva Hammerås, Jon Henningyn, Diana Hermosa, Olav Holm, Finn Adrian Jorkjen, Yakob Kazal, Joaquin Lloret, Eli Lunhcim, Maximilian Malin, Svein Malvik, Johan Christopher Meidel, Hermione Nemec, Øyvind Novak Jenssen, Martín Rapino, Amund Mikalsen Rolfsen, Enrique Roura, Sergio Sánchez, Karoline Sætre, Frank Størseth, Enrique Roura, Sergio Sánchez, Ann Lundstrøm, Alessandro Trapani, Andreas Wallroth, Claire Velicitat.
Director of photography: Marcell Erdélyi,
Camera Operator: Dorian Degoutte, Emil A. B. Tanem.
Camera assistant : Øystein Rambjør Holten, Hanna Fauske, Jørgen Klüver, Andreas Schille
Grip: Martín Rapino, Jakob Peters
Sound: Andreas Gutuen Aaser
Sound Editing: Jumping into Génépi
from original UKA Films soundtracks and
"Skyggeland" composed and played by Einar Grinde
Video editor and post-production: Jordi Colomer, Dorian Degoutte
Car Builders: Kristian Årmhaug, Sjur Eide Aas, Marius Rødseth Berg, Per Bersvendsen, Vilde L. Blom, Joana Bruno, Victoria Chaler, Per Elef Eltvedt, Diana Espinosa, Asbjørn Hammervik Flø, Ingrid Johanna Fløgstad, Anders Søby Harsem, Finn Adrian Jorkjen,Adrian Kirkeby, Maximilian Malin, Bjørn Inge Melås, Jone Nordland, Jakob Peters, Per Kristian Roman, Martin Rügel, Sara Solana, Andreas Wallroth.
Catering: Øyvind Novak Jenssen, Karoline Sætre
Archives: Fotogjengen at Samfundet
Executive Production: Trygve Ohren, Carolina Olivares, Charlotte Rostad
Aknowledgments: Verkstedhallen, Svartlamon, Svartlamon Barnehage, ReMida, Besteforeldrenes klimaaksjon, EuroPark, Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts, RAKE arbeidsfellesskap, PuzzleFilm, HMK Films, KORO, Arts Council Norway, EEA Grants,
Special Thanks: Diana Espinosa, Einar Grinde, Per Kristian nygard, Jakob Peters, Frank Størseth, Ann Sylvi Olsen,
Florian Schneider, Olav Sjelmo, Ulrika Wallin
Produced by: RAKE Visningsrom, Trondheim Kommune and CO producciones |
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