UKENDT (igloo), L.A. Project

Installation at M&A materiel and application, Los Angelse, Silver Lake, 2007.

The concept for Igloo project are developed out from other art projects I did in Costa Rica “Woolhouse” 2003, Denmark, “Free” 2002 and Sweden ”Scandinavia” 2005. In those project I worked whit the Nordic culture and identity with focus on architecture, Nordic tradition, weaving, hardware and materiel and how the Nordic culture meets other cultures, read more about this in my book, Anja Franke_Installations. The Igloo concept is also developed form my inspiration of the Germany artist Joseph Beuys. He work whit felt as his main materiel and the spiritualism contra the materialism. The Igloo concept is also constructed out form the identity as an artist. As an artist I work with sculpture in the expanded field note: Sculpture in the expanded field by Rosalind Krauss, but in the Igloo project I wanted to experiment with the role as an artist in the expanded field instead, and to some extent give up the artistic authority and more take the role as the basic concept creator and the initiator for a creative process. Letting the creation of the final design grow in the chaos, conflicts and forces of a collaboration process between different cultures.

The Igloo project started because I contacted Jenna Didier from M&A and showed her my front garden project Instant HERLEV, which generated an invitation from her to exhibit at the M&A´s. From here I started to create the concept for the Igloo project. The main Igloo concept was to create a typical (cold) Nordic icon as an Igloo showed in LA, challenging the warm California urbanity. I chose that the materiel for the Igloo had to be wool felt there had to be weaved and the Igloo had to establish a space inside to sit down and in this circumstance make a social statement. I made a model for the Igloo project and send pictures of it to M&A. Jenna show the model and my concept to person in LA. She proposed that I could work with an architect and an engineer on the project. Jenna and I discussed how the collaboration should work, and I liked the idea due to geographic distance between Denmark and California. The Igloo had to be worked out and developed from a social imagination between the Nordic and the California mental context to see what kind of form diversity it would show. Behind the main Igloo concept for building an Igloo in the California context I was questing the political dilemma for the climate changes in the world: is it nature or is it CO2 leak there are the reason for climate changes? And because I did know that the US are the country there are having the biggest CO2 in the world next to China I wood like to visualize that question in the US. In the building process I choose to make a collaboration between M&A, architect John Southern and engineer Nick Blake. I chose to make an open session and we all meet on Skype every Thursday. From the beginning I asked the team how they imagined a cold Igloo to sit inside? We discussed the look of the Igloo and we made a lot of models. My idea of collaboration was to make an experiment on loosening up my role as an artist and become an initiator. My job was to generate motivation and at the same time hold on to the main Igloo concept the materiel and weaving and see what kind of form and rituality that would grow from this position.

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