ROTVÄLTA / föreställning (UPHEAVAL / scenario) (2024-2027)

This artistic research project in public art led by artist Kerstin Bergendal is funded through Gothenburg City Stadsmiljöforvaltning and curated by Göteborg Konst 2024.  This project rarises through a public art commission concerning Götaplatsen, a monumental square in Gothenburg. Built in 1923, the square was conceived as the destination of an equally monumental avenue, stretching 850 meters southwards from the city center. Today, after more than 100 years, it is being prepared for an update re street pavement, lighting, and related infrastructure. This process has generated a 1% for art commission.  

In 2024, Berghendal responded to a brief requiring two rather distinct components: a process of public inquiry, subsequently followed by the development of a permanent addition to the square. The project she has now initiated investigates the urban imaginaries and imaginaries of place that are at work in this key urban site of the cityscape of Gothenburg. The project entails conversations with “narrators” of the city to produce an (as yet unspecified) intervention into the extended site of Götaplatsen. Bergendal describes the point of departire for her inquiry as follows:

As a point of departure, I chose to focus on the fact that the square was conceived as a self-representation of the city, while simultaneously reflecting a group of wealthy merchants who had obtained the right to define it. Even today, the square is consistently used as an emblem of the city itself - by media, whenever Gothenburg is referenced, and by the municipality in all public documents and programs. It thus appears to be linked to a specific collective imaginary, albeit in two versions: ‘those of us who live in Gothenburg’ and ‘those of us who govern Gothenburg.’ 

Any addition of an artwork to the physical site would therefore inevitably be associated with this dual identity. I have approached Götaplatsen as a node where different imaginaries of the city intersect, and at times collide: the city as a cultural capital, as a site of economic accumulation, and as a sum of lived experiences. 

The research project is profiled in a dedicated project website here: https://rotvälta.nu/en. On the site you can follow the different phases of the research process from 2024 to 2028 through two rows of images, one showing fragments from archives, books, and other research sources, and the other following the artist as she moves through the city including short videos of the encounters with different people met along the way. 

One key phase of the research process took place in June 2025 when over five consecutive days, Bergendal conducted ten public conversations about Götaplatsen, in the main foyer of the City Theatre. Eleven participants joined her on stage, each bringing a specific field of knowledge and perspective on the city and the square. Each conversation lasted approximately one hour and was followed by an open discussion with the audience, forming a shared moment of dialogue and learning. All conversations were documented using eight cameras and are currently being edited into ten separate videos of approximately 30 minutes each. When completed these will also be shared online via the project site. 

Another phase of the research process will take place in Spring 2026 when there will be a three-day activation is taking place across eight libraries in the city. At each location, the project unfolds over three days, presenting different imaginaries of the city alongside video documentation from the public discussions at the City Theatre. This distributed format extends the conversation beyond the city center, inviting residents to engage with the material within their local contexts. Visitors are invited into a dialogue, to ask questions, and to contribute their own perspectives and experiences on the image of the city and the way Götaplatsen sits within their understanding of place. 

One of the key outputs of the project will be a book on the methodologies used and their emergence within artistic practices over the last two decades, to be released in 2027/8.  Prof. Mick Wilson joins the research process with the intention to build a series of research seminars and teaching materials from this research project. This project is also realised in collaboration with GPS400: Centre for Collaborative Visual Research at the University of Gothenburg. 

For more please see the project site here.