Camilla Carlsson och John Håkansson

Projekt: 40-50 löpmeter virke per barn

Materials: textil building, photographs and wooden table with research

 

Photographs

 

Installation views Next:Utopia, Norrköpings Konstmuseum 2016

Installation views Sinne, Helsinki 2013

Building the installation, Sinne

Workshop for school classes, Sinne

Text in English

Text på svenska

 

back to works

 

© John Håkansson och Camilla Carlsson 2016

 

Text from the exhibition at Sinne, Helsinki 2013

40-50 running meters of timber per child

The exhibition by Camilla Carlsson and John Håkansson explores the world of adventure playgrounds, staffed playgrounds where children build wooden structures, create and shape the play. The first adventure playground opened in Emdrup, Copenhagen, in 1943. This playground, still in use, is called Skrammellegepladsen. The Danish word ‘skrammel’ was translated into ‘junk playgrounds’, later on known as ‘adventure playgrounds’. The artists have, since 2008, explored and documented adventure playgrounds in Denmark, Germany and Sweden.

The adventure playground can be seen as a model of influence, as well as an actual site where children have an immediate impact on their environment. The artists’ research includes, among others, one reference called The Model. A model for a qualitative society, a work by Palle Nielsen 1968. This was an adventure playground inside the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The cultural-historical dimensions are carrying a scent from the 60's-70's, while the artists’ photographs are showing well functioning contemporary adventure playgrounds.

In Sweden, most of the adventure playgrounds have disappeared. Is this due to ideological, economical or safety reasons? Adventure playgrounds concerns many areas, such as urban planning, architecture, democracy and pedagogy. What perception of knowledge characterizes a society? In what way are children today involved in the processes of planning and shaping the urban space?

How could you make adults see the value of play and the gain of knowledge in adventure playgrounds? In these playgrounds children learn through experience-based learning in relationship to other children and adults. The scale is important, as well as the time perspective; the wooden structure never ends; it is in continuous state of transformation. Also the recycling of materials is an important issue in our time. The title 40-50 running meters of timber per child is taken from a recommendation written in the 70’s. This recommendation is still relevant.

The activity in an adventure playground have a lot in common with artistic processes – to build up, add, remove, change, while working with the whole. Many wooden structures, huts or buildings, as well as art works, can be seen as self-portraits. The artists’ presentation also includes a site-specific construction made of textile and foam plastic. Perhaps one way to enter this exhibition is to remember your own childhood’s huts or the pillow-room in the 1970’s pre-schools? The value of play has a lot to do with imagination, which is more important than the materials or tools being used.

In connection with the exhibition we organize workshops for school classes. Other children who are keen on building can visit the workshop on Sundays between 1-4PM.