ARTLAND

Do you know the circle is the female symbol when you are about to enter the toilets in Poland?                 

 - You should go in where there is a circle on the door, my five year old daughter told me when we moved to Poland and I was standing outside a public toilet, shilly-shally as to go in through the door with a circle or the door with a triangle. Under the protest of my daughter I pulled the handle of the triangle-door - and ran into a surprised man. The very simple solution of the connection between a nude woman and a triangle had lured me inside. When consulting symbols and their meanings, I learned that the triangle that points upward is about the spiritual and male world and the one pointing downwards is about the old stuff: the alliance between women, nature and body. But, on the toilet door telling us about natural needs, this triangle is meant for men. I’d rather think about this theft of the triangle as a secret hint about equality. In Poland women are granted the universal symbol for eternity and entirety instead. And, on a location frequently visited.                                                                                                                                                 –How did you know that I should enter the circle-room? I asked my daughter full of admiration.                   

 – I saw two girls coming out earlier, she answered.

Long introduction to something about round buildings. Below is a picture of one round building in the harbour of Gdynia that I’d love to make an art project on/in/under/with. So delicate by the quay. The other one is a red round house on stilts in the inner harbour of Baltimore, like a shining jewel by the waterline.

A few evenings ago I listened to speech on architecture and urban planning as artistic process. The architect Thomas Hellquist, professor at Blekinge Institute of Technology, showed pictures from a Parisian suburb where they’ve added an enormous round facade on a building, as well as a round large inner yard. The spatial planning of the area repeated these round forms in road-plans and in other buildings and the contrasts between round and straight lines was visible.

There is now a debate in Stockholm about the plans to build a round house on high pillars on the large inner yard of the district of blocks called “Plankan” from the sixties. It would house more apartments and a pond but also spread less light to the existing apartments.

When giving a lecture to students at Spatial Planning at BTH today I spoke about artistic interventions and ideas for public space. When walking outside I saw the new round building soon ready. The former military and orderly area has now got a revolutionary diagonal road and a round building.  Merry go round round round.