Love Tensta

If the saccharine tabloid sentimentality of the forthcoming royal Swedish marriage has you singing Sex Pistol lyrics or mumbling about Cromwell, Danton and Jefferson. If you feel that the word love has been hijacked by yellow press mock sensationalism and begin to fear that nationalist sentimentality may never end. There is hope. Check out http://www.lovetensta.se/.

Love is in the air in Tensta, but a love that has nothing to do with the nuptials of Sweden’s future monarch to her personal fitness trainer but with Sweden’s first Hope Center (Hoppförmedling). On June 6th we at Tensta Konsthall are proud to host an alternative national day set up by the organisers of Love Tensta, Suleiman Ali, Faid Issa, Guleed Mohamed and Johanna Tysk. The event will launch their manifesto! It’s a wonderful document well worth reading. To give a flavour of what they stand for and the tone for the evening the following excerpt is typical.

“We want to see that the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs arranges all their internships for their diplomats in Tensta.

With 90 nationalities and 137 languages we see Tensta as a place with an amazing capacity to teach the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs about diplomacy and an understanding for other cultures. We want to say to young people in Tensta; why throw stones when you could be lecturing Swedish diplomats instead? Why set fire to trash cans when you have a unique understanding that can help all of Sweden to succeed on the global arena?”

Amongst other highlights for the event, architect and local resident Erik Stenberg will lecture on the history of Tensta. I have seen Erik in action before and he gives a fascinating account of the social management and consequences of ‘the million program’ (Miljonprogramet), the construction of homes for a million people in Sweden between 1965 and 1975. Tensta was born as a suburb through this and is often used as the exemplary model of the project. Stenberg’s critical account reveals how standardization and functionalism created the social conditions of Tensta and how the utopian aims of the project have failed in the wake of social and demographic shifts that have occurred in Sweden since that time. Also on the bill is the eponymous Adam Tensta who will perform back in his old neighbourhood, revolutionary poet Dunderdan and Husby legend Aladin Zakholi.

The event is free and I can think of no better way to oppose the proto Nazism and right wing propaganda normally associated with the national day than with debate and celebration. So if the endless stream of media diarrhoea wedding news or ads for royally blessed coffee, ice cream and cake leave you feeling sick…