Home Sweet Home 3D Conny Blom

Home Sweet Home 3D
Architectural model executed for the 11th Sculpture Quadrennial in Riga, Latvia. The exhibition, that was subtitled with the theme Anatomy of Integration, intended to address and if possible bridge the chasm between the Russian and Latvian populations living parallel to each other in Riga, but ironically the local politicians intervened and cancelled the agreement to display the works publically in the centre of Riga. This forced the arrangers of the quadrennial to relocate all the works to the premises of the Latvian Railway History Museum. It is the first time in the history of the quadrennial that politicians has forbidden works to be shown publically. Not even during Soviet years something equal to this has happened in the city.

About the piece:
In the mid 20th century the Swedish Social Democratic government was trying to ensure affordable, decent standard living for the whole Swedish population. The idea was that every citizen who wished to do so should be able to rent an apartment. That thought is still alive in Sweden. Actually a really nice set of rules has been established to govern this area. For example, to ensure the wellbeing of everybody, nobody is allowed to either rent or own more than one "home"; to minimize speculation and uncontrollably increasing rents, no private person is allowed to lend their apartments out for a period longer than two years; smaller apartments are meant only for single people, as everybody should be able to live decent lives in big enough apartments.

I am a self-employed culture worker, and so is my wife. This means that our income is smaller than that of most Swedish people. As we are two, we cannot rent small apartments. But whenever we apply for a big enough apartment by the Swedish standards, it gets rented out to people with higher income. As only companies are allowed to rent out apartments for a longer term, individuals are reduced to queuing numbers and computers sort the statistics to select new tenants. As far as computers are concerned, we would at the same time have good chances to be chosen for a small apartment, based on our economy, and we are unlikely candidates based on that we are not a single person. Same goes, in the other direction, for the bigger apartments. "Home Sweet Home" consists of floor plans of over 150 apartments that we have applied for unsuccessfully.

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					Home Sweet Home 3D Architectural model executed for the 11th Sculpture Quadrennial in Riga, Latvia. The exhibition, that was subtitled with the theme Anatomy of Integration, intended to address and if possible bridge the chasm between the Russian and Latvian populations living parallel to each other in Riga, but ironically the local politicians intervened and cancelled the agreement to display the works publically in the centre of Riga. This forced the arrangers of the quadrennial to relocate all the works to the premises of the Latvian Railway History Museum. It is the first time in the history of the quadrennial that politicians has forbidden works to be shown publically. Not even during Soviet years something equal to this has happened in the city. About the piece: In the mid 20th century the Swedish Social Democratic government was trying to ensure affordable, decent standard living for the whole Swedish population. The idea was that every citizen who wished to do so should be able to rent an apartment. That thought is still alive in Sweden. Actually a really nice set of rules has been established to govern this area. For example, to ensure the wellbeing of everybody, nobody is allowed to either rent or own more than one "home"; to minimize speculation and uncontrollably increasing rents, no private person is allowed to lend their apartments out for a period longer than two years; smaller apartments are meant only for single people, as everybody should be able to live decent lives in big enough apartments. I am a self-employed culture worker, and so is my wife. This means that our income is smaller than that of most Swedish people. As we are two, we cannot rent small apartments. But whenever we apply for a big enough apartment by the Swedish standards, it gets rented out to people with higher income. As only companies are allowed to rent out apartments for a longer term, individuals are reduced to queuing numbers and computers sort the statistics to select new tenants. As far as computers are concerned, we would at the same time have good chances to be chosen for a small apartment, based on our economy, and we are unlikely candidates based on that we are not a single person. Same goes, in the other direction, for the bigger apartments. "Home Sweet Home" consists of floor plans of over 150 apartments that we have applied for unsuccessfully. Next >>

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