Two Europeans on a Platform is a performative installation by students of the Royal Institute of Art, responding to the work of Abdulrazak Gurnah, who was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The work is presented within the Nobel Week Lights 2023 light festival, which is free and open to all 2-11 December. Performances take place daily during the festival week. The programme can be found here.
With Two Europeans on a Platform the artists present a collective, pluralistic approach to translating his wisdom into an installation of words, images, sounds, performance and light. Gurnah’s reflections on the displacement and changing perspectives of the immigrant’s journey between cultures and continents, and the effects of war and crises, serve as a beacon of light in navigating our current times.
Two Europeans on a Platform takes the shape of a little holiday kiosk, glowing with an otherworldly luminescence, standing on the pier on its own. Seemingly displaced from the festive market across the water in Gamla Stan, the kiosk is like no other: it shines like a lighthouse, radiating charged memories. It sells the one thing the others don’t: Light.
The artwork was created by students at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, under the supervision of Ming Wong, Silvia Thomackenstein and Robert Brečević, in dialogue with Helena Hansson, the Swedish translator of Gurnah’s works.
Participating artists:
Roda Abdalle, Jaana-Kristiina Alakoski, Isolde Bergqvist, Neil Bhat and Aron Fogelström.