After 17 kilometers of border exploration between the cities of Vänersborg and Trollhättan the team, complete with a dice, uniforms, white flags, and a samba orchestra, closed in on the industrial area of Trollhättan.
Short project description
Vandring – Vittring was an artistic exploration of the borders between the Swedish twin cities of Vänersborg and Trollhättan led by the artistic group Vittring. In all some 60 people walked the 17 kilometers between the cities, and stopped at a number of occasions to explore dimensions of the city borders. “Play stations” included border transplantation of soils between the cities, border meditations, border poetry, border drawings, border lectures, symbolism of borders, border food, and a game of giant Risk (strategy game) at the parking lot of a shopping mall.
As an integral part of the project participants used a custom made version of the Bordr app, and were instructed to submit as many borders they perceived to be crossing as possible. The idea was to dissect the borders hidden beneath the surface of the larger political border between the cities.
The project was part of the extended programming for the Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art
Borders explored
Vänersborg – Trollhättan
125 submissions to the Bordr app
See them all here: Interactive map of the borders between Vänersborg and Trollhättan
Methods
Artistic experimentalism
Bordr iPhone app
(reference to projects Project Borders Queens, Project Borders Vision, Borders of Dals Långed)
Purpose
Artistic exploration of the complex relationship between two Swedish cities
Audience
Artists, city planners, architects, historians, geographers, linguists, map enthusiasts, wider public
Project Period
Start: Planning started in 2012
Last activity: Project carried out on September 14, 2013
Locations
Vänersborg and Trollhättan, Sweden
Project results
It was the first time that the Bordr iPhone app was used for a live mapping project. The lessons from the combination of border inputs, and mapping, laid the foundation for Project Borders Vision, What border have you crossed?, and ultimately, the production of Bordr.org.
Inspired by
The idea of using the Bordr iPhone app for live storytelling was first brought to life in the preparations for the Stateless in Jordan project. However, practical circumstances, and lack of access to relevant technology in the refugee camps of Jordan, proved that location difficult as an experimental testing ground. The Vandring-Vittring project became a much more controlled and playful environment for the testing of the mapping technology.
Difficulties
The project required an impressive set of logistics and a good local grounding to get this number of dedicated individuals to undertake a full day of artistic border explorations. A lot of credit goes to the team of artist group Vittring.
Credit
Artist group Vittring was the lead organizers of the event with a working group consisting of among others Maria Quarfordt Brising, Pernilla Eskilsson, Niklas Karlsson, David Myrvold, and Johan Hallberg. Marcus Haraldsson, Bordr, provided the link between the project and the technology developed by Christo de Klerk, Bordr.
More
Explore all the borders that were crossed in the project on the interactive map
