Malin Pettersson Öberg

Welcome to the release of Model Archive – A Witness to the City! The release will take place on Friday 8 December at 5.30-7.30 pm, at Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation in Stockholm. Model Archive – A Witness to the City is an interdisciplinary anthology that explores Stockholm’s urban design and planning, based on a model archive kept at the City Planning Department of Stockholm.

During the release a conversation will be held with:
Malin Pettersson Öberg (artist and initiator of the book)
Mikaela Steby Stenfalk (artist and co-editor)
Carlos Mínguez Carrasco (chief curator at ArkDes)
Magnus Florin (author, literary critic and dramaturg)
Helen Runting (city planner and member of Secretary)
Malin Zimm (architect PhD, researcher and writer)
Harri Anttila (modeller at the City Planning Dept. in 1990-2019)

This anthology takes as its starting points a film by Malin Pettersson Öberg commissioned by Index in 2017 and shot in the archive, as well as an exhibition curated in 2018 by Mikaela Steby Stenfalk at ArkDes – Sweden’s National Centre for Architecture and Design.
The film will be screened during the release.

In essays and conversations, a dozen authors and dialogue partners reflect on the relationship between model and city, complexities of the urban planning process, the housing issue, and more. Who builds the city and for whom? How does the shape of the city relate to the shape of its inhabitants’ lives? And how can the archive’s models serve as tools for memory and historiography, as well as reflect and challenge the city we now have? This anthology is the result of a multi-year collaboration between Malin Pettersson Öberg and Mikaela Steby Stenfalk.

Contributors are: Pedro Ignacio Alonso, Harri Anttila, Carlos Mínguez Carrasco, Olivia Eriksson, Magnus Florin, Kristian Rosengren, Secretary (Helen Runting, Karin Matz & Rutger Sjögrim), Axel Wieder and Malin Zimm.

Published by Arvinius + Orfeus and available in Swedish and English
Graphic design: Jens Andersson. Photos: Kristofer Johnsson

The Bookshop Situation Series at Index is based on events to present books, magazines, records and other artistic formats. The bookshop situation is a way to test content, to share it, to distribute it, offering situations to be part of a community of experimental producers and users.