Trasten, vårt kvarter was a participatory art, culture and democracy project in Gislaved, 2018 to 2019, led by Kulturplatån in Gislaved. It took the Trasten housing estate as its starting point and set out to use culture to build belonging, strengthen local participation, and close the distance between the people living there and the town’s cultural institutions.

A central principle was that residents, above all the young people, would shape the content of the project themselves. Together with Mohammed Ryback I worked with young people from Trasten in creative processes where their experiences, ideas and images of their own neighbourhood were placed at the centre.

The work resulted in, among other things, a collective exhibition during Konstrundan Gislaved 2019, showing both the young people’s own work and portraits I had made of participants in the project. The exhibition set a visitor record for the art trail.

Trasten, vårt kvarter was about who gets to make culture, which places are considered cultural spaces, and what happens when people are given the chance to tell the story of where they live themselves.

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Inkubator för stadsdelsprojekt i Gislaved, Artivist