Umeå Volcano public project computer renderings video documentation of public meeting and interviews with inhabitants of the town of Umeå 2006, Verkligheten Gallery, Umeå, Sweden

Does Umeå need a Volcano?

Umeå - a volcano city?

Well, not yet, but maybe in a few weeks if the Polish artist Joanna Rajkowska gets the Umeå citizens to agree. But, of course, it's more of a metaphorical volcano than the lava-splattering kind, more of a social volcano that will help Umeå and it's citizens to let out some pressure.

Joanna Rajkowska came to Umeå as a IASPIS grant holder in the beginning of September. I met her then and she explained how she experienced Umeå as an idyll of peace and quiet.

But that was then. Soon after that, two group rapes happened in close succession and when she later took part in a demonstration against violence against women, she discovered that the demonstrators felt a genuine fear.

One thing led to another. Soon she discovered the queues at the liquor store and the alcoholism and the fights in the Umeå bar life.

“The peaceful Umeå turned out to be a town containing enormous pressure. Things are growing under the surface. It's like a volcano before the eruption", she explains.

So, why not take a full step. Build a volcano where the Umeå citizens can meet, get to know new people and turn this pent-up energy in a new direction. At the same time the volcano would change the appearance and character of Umeå - and become a work of public art.

The idea is that the framework of the volcano would be a ten meter high steel structure, covered in wood onto which fluid asphalt is poured to create the “right ash- and lava feeling". In the bottom of the volcano there is a fire place and along the walls there are windows, which change color as the light shines through them.

Joanna has already contacted NCC and they have said that.... yes, it's not impossible.

“But I am a stranger in Umeå. I don't live here. This must be up to the citizens of Umeå to decide".

And because she believes in “direct democracy" she has announced a public meeting in the town library today. There she will present her idea in detail and listen to the reactions of the people of Umeå. Is the idea just crazy? If not, where should the volcano be placed? Along the river? How should it look on the inside? Are the homeless welcome to come inside and warm up?

“ If I get a yes, I will start on the question of financing at once. If it is no, this no will at least be part of the project and part of the exhibition that I will have at Verkligheten in the end of November", Joanna says.

Yes or no - the answer is given today. And if it comes to yes, then there still remains another yes or no to be taken in one or other committee.

Anders Sjogren

(Vasterbottens-Kuriren, November 11th, 2006)

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