Futuresonic

For this new commission Scandinavian artist Elin Wikstrom is arranging a wheelchair tag rugby match, scripted and designed to illustrate biodiversity issues and representing the invasion of non-native species of plants and animals in the northwest of England, and in particular the red and grey squirrel. The drama and brutality of the game will be documented by multiple cameramen and edited into a short film and presented in the Environment 2.0 exhibition at CUBE.

Part I - The commissioned film will be installed in the Environment 2.0 exhibition at CUBE.

Part II - The film will be later shown as part of a special screening accompanied by talks from leading experts in biodiversity, plant/animal migration, and also attended by the match players from Wigan and District Wheelchair Tag Rugby Club. Click here

In the year of Darwin's bicentenary, Wikstrom provides an explosive illustration of the "battle of the species." The project also celebrates the sporting prowess of the wheelchair tag rugby players at a time when the UK is preparing itself for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games: London 2012. This project further develops ideas from an earlier project by Wikström in Norway that visualised the struggle for existence between non-native/alien marine species and native species represented by a game of underwater rugby.

Elin Wikstrom - "Rugby is quite a brutal game, that's why I chose visualise the struggle for existence between native and non-native species as a rugby match. However, the rules of the game are set by some sort of restrictive measure for the brutality - I use sport here as a symbol for fair play - as an alternative to more unregulated fights. Focusing on aquatic/marine invasive and non-native species in Norway made it logic to embody the struggle as an underwater rugby match. Focusing on terrestrial plants/animals makes it logical to visualise the struggle with an "overwater rugby match". But most importantly I think there is something extremely powerful with wheelchair rugby. I totally admire the players. To me they are heroes and their skills more admirable than the skills of sportsmen in general. I see the sport as a positive example of lust for life."

Biography

Elin Wikstrom is a leading figure in Scandinavian art. In her practice - with roots in performance, conceptual and contextual based art - she creates "constructed" situations. These involve projects sited within the public domain, that questions the habits, behaviour and opinions of individuals and society in general.

Elin Wikstrom has created projects for international exhibitions such as the second Tirana Biennale and Transform & Exchange, Kunstverein München. Wikström has recently made projects for The Showroom (London), DCA (Dundee), and her work is represented in the collection of Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Elin lives in Gothenburg and is currently guest professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Umeå University, Sweden.