Till svensk version
|
Text-sound-composition, 14:40 This piece only consists of documentary sound materials but is not in itself documentary. It is an expression of feelings. After the police violations on the freedom of speech and democratic and human rights, not only in the form of criminal actions, batons and murder attempts, but just as much in the form of a total control over the press and thus of the crowd, immediately after the riots it provoked, anger was boiling in me as well as in the entire critical movement that tried to express itself during the EU bureaucrats' and George Bush's meeting in June 2001. The feeling of "public opinion" was that all the throwing of stones that demonstrators did was unprovoked and unnecessary, on the other hand the deadly shootings of the police fully understandable. Those who had been there and tried to tell people about their experiences weren't believed. What is written in the paper is true, isn't it?! Demonstrators were terrorists. What they really wanted or really did, and why they did it, was never presented as long as the headlines were still big. Not until noone cares anymore, truth begins to appear. At the same time many very young people and often apparently innocent ones, are sentenced to prison sentences of many years for having been a "threat to democracy"! The reality around the Göteborg riots is one of the biggest juridical scandals ever in this country, and it will be remembered as the self-sufficient Swedish state's and social democracy's most evident betrayals of the democracy they so willingly are bragging about. The Rage Which Lifts Up The Stone is a defence of the well-motivated anger and a reminder that we shouldn't confort ourselves with our relatively comfortable positions in this false society. The state is on the same side of the money even when it smiles to us. Don't be fooled again. Sound sources: the films "Hotet mot demokratin" (Marionettfilm), "Så gör vi i Göteborg" (Independent Media Center), "Tre dagar i Europa", tv-reportage in "Uppdrag Granskning". Realized at EMS, Electroacoustic Music in Sweden 2002. The piece is made in support of the political prisoners after the Göteborg riots at the EU summit in 2001 and had its first performance at the protest festival "Ilskans Rätt - ett Göteborgsjubileum" at Fylkingen the 20th of June 2002. A new, slightly longer version was made for a radio transmission in Radio Yelah the 5th of October 2002, who also made it available on their web site along with an interview with me (in Swedish) about this, politics and art, and about sound art in general, Fylkingen and EMS. (Now it seems to be possible to load it down from here - search on my name on the page.) Another new, eight channel version of this piece was played at the festival Elsvets at Fylkingen the 8th of November, 2002. |
 |
Updated the 25th of December 2008.