Alfredo Jaar

According to Jaar a living culture is one that creates. The city Skoghall Konsthall in Sweden is a small community that is in search of an identity. Until Jaar's recent project The Skoghall Kontsall project this community was primarily identified as a Paper Mill town. Actually most of the city Skoghall has been built by the paper mill. The time has come to present the world with a new image for this city. They are aiming for an image of both progress and culture . Alfredo proposed to build a contemporary structure built completely in paper produced by the local Paper Mill. Local architects and builders were included in completing this project. The project was designed to reflect the contemporary Swedish architecture in minimal elegance with respect for the environment. The project also reflected the generous commitment of the main local industry, the paper mill. This opening exhibition will be the first exhibition ever held in the city. The project was officially inaugurated by the Mayor of the City, while the entire city was present. The closing ceremony occurred exactly twenty four hours after the opening of the, The Skoghall Konsthall, was engulfed with flames as planned. This will probably be one of the shortest lived structures built for contemporary art. Jaar hoped that this creativity and ephemeral existence will help define the importance of contemporary art. He also hoped that the short existence of this project would also make visible the void that we would live in if it were not for art.

There were a couple of groups who protested the burning of this project. Townspeople were saying this was both a beautiful and necessary structure that must remain. Of course, this was the desired response Jaar was hoping for. Jaar then instructed this group of protestors to focus their efforts elsewhere. A committee was then formed that focused on forming a permanent public gallery for the city of Skoghall. However, there were other consequences resulting from this protest. Another group of townspeople that were concerned with the waste of perfectly good building materials, they demanded that the building be dismantled rather than burning the building. They argued that the lumber should be used to build a playground for the community’s children. Jaar then offered to design a playground for the city at no cost to the town on the condition material support was gained from Stora-Enso. A year after this project was completed, Jaar received an invitation to design the playground for the community.