TUNNEL VISION – UTDRAG FRÅN IDÉFÖRSLAGET
”A passenger train dives into a tunnel. A small winding cut in the tunnel’s concrete walls catches the passenger’s eyes. They follow the line it traces. The line expands into an opening. It then expands further to reveal a glowing cavity. Viewed while passing at 50 km/hr, the orange glow hints at a possible sunset and repeated lines in the background appear in stroboscopic motion. The many objects in the foreground blend to form a series of waves on the high seas. But then, the train abruptly slows and then stops alongside this mysterious window. When viewing the scene stationary, the contents of the room become legible. What originally appeared to be a sun setting over a vast ocean is a diorama, not unlike one seen time and again in natural history museums. The diorama offers a snapshot of an underground chamber, a vault of sorts, lined with hundreds of safety deposit boxes. It’s not clear what is stored inside the walls. The landscape in the foreground is now clearly a pile of boxed, wrapped, and crated artifacts. These artifacts, even when boxed and wrapped, appear non-Swedish, foreign, from elsewhere. They also bear the marks of a long journey. Where did these come from? What are they doing here? Is it possible, that right here, under one of its most treasured sites, Gothenburg has been storing some of the world’s most threatened cultural treasures? Are they here by choice or were they forced here? Did they migrate or were they kidnapped? Is this a big loot or a great refuge? How long have these objects been here?”