El proyecto comenzó con una iniciativa de las artistas Malin Arnell, Kajsa Dahlberg, Johanna Gustavsson y Fia-Stina Sandlund en colaboración con la artista Zoe Leonard en relación con las elecciones parlamentarias suecas en 2010. La acción es políticamente independiente. El texto que se lee es una adaptación de I want a president …, Zoe Leonard, 1992. El día antes de las elecciones se reunieron en Sergels Torg en Estocolmo, para leer el texto en grupo en una plaza famosa ser usada para manifestaciones públicas.

La primera lectura colectiva inspiró una serie de lecturas en otros países durante las elecciones. El proyecto ha crecido hasta el punto en que se creó un blog que sirve como una herramienta para aquellos quienes quieren organizar su propia lectura, leer más acerca de las lecturas anteriores y obtener las instrucciones de cómo proceder al realizar una lectura colectiva.

Johanna Gustafvsson se encuentra en residencia en Beta-Local en el programa The Harbor

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Primer Mensaje enviado por Johanna como pre-ámbulo
Stockholm, Sweden, September 17, 2012.

To Whom It May Concern,

You know, I’m the kind of person that will smear anything with the personal. My current room mate calls me a lion, this is a metaphor. My name is Johanna. You can call me uncle. Call me mami. Call me straight or slightly bended. Call me white. Call me out. Call me up. Call me communicator, it rhymes with vibrator. I am Lucida Grande. I am enlightened, I am big and I’m bright. I’m an intellectual and a feeler. An activist thinker. A working class hero. I’m something to be. Or, I’m trying to be, something, but, I don’t have a home so I move at least twice a year, I have a job but it brings me no security, I don’t have a steady partner, I have no children. I am open to every suggestion made, in fact, I live off of one indecent suggestion after the other. I really don’t trust anyone, I blame neo-liberalism. It makes my everyday insecure because everything is negotiable. A no is never a no but can always be negotiated, an agreement can always be broken, a deadline is never a deadline, a flight can be re-scheduled, a promise made undone. They say it’s the intention of doing that counts, but at one point we have to go from thinking to doing, and it might be closer then you think. When it comes down to it, intentions don’t make revolutions, but bodies do. That’s why it hurts me that neo-liberalism so often positions me out of place and unaware. I live like an entrepreneur and think like a communist. I am a contradiction in terms. I don’t really exist, still here I am, writing to you, present and ready, sometimes trusting. I want to insist we be present more. That we claim space, together. Places and spaces for art, dialogue, conflict, knowledge exchange, pedagogy, analyses of power – conversations and activities for change. Places where what we least expected to happen – will happen. We need that. I work with words, language and translation. I write and read it out loud, poetry and a type of spoken word, sometimes I speak in tongues. I perform, potential realities rather then fiction. I find the potential to be more hopeful then the fictive, as reality is that which continues to exist even when you stop believing in it.

Here are links to some of my works/collaborations:
Radical Pedagogy, is an ongoing collaboration with artist Lisa Nyberg, read more about our work here: http://radikalpedagogik.blogspot.se/
Radical pedagogy is a continuation of Malmoe Free University for Women – MFK (2006-2011). As MFK we wrote a book called Do The Right Thing – a manual from MFK. Read more about MFK and download the book (in English and Swedish) as pdf here: http://mfkuniversitet.blogspot.se/
I was one of the founding members of the art collective, the YES! Association (2005-2012) http://www.foreningenja.org/en/ .
One of the organizers of the public reading I want a dyke for president…, (2010-2012) http://iwantapresident.wordpress.com/ .
Initiator and organizer of the discussion group Nobody Puts Baby In A Corner – NPBIAC in New York (2009-2010) http://nobodyputsbabyinacorner20092010.blogspot.se/

At my talk I will share my experiences with running a free feminist university, talk about why I think it is so important to define and practise a radical pedagogy, I will say something about words and translation, and whatever else you feel necessary to address. I am currently taking Spanish lessons, but as I have only really learned one sentence (La lucha feminista siege!), this talk will be in English. I will stay at Beta Local for 2 weeks, this talk is the beginning of things. I hope to see you there!

In solidarity,
Johanna

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