| art.description.project | SHORT DESCRIPTION:
The Final Dissolution of Nils was a lecture performance with a book, a video projector, a boat and a river, loosely tying together the tragic story of a Gothenburg based artist, Nils Olof Bonnier, to my own personal history, systems theory, thing-power materialist philosophy, and a misunderstanding of the relationships between aesthetics and politics.
The performance was presented during the Gagnef music and art festival, on a dock by the riverside. It began at midnight by rowing a boat down river with an additional performer inside the boat, playing guitar. After tying up I climbed onto the dock, the guitar player remained and continued to play. As I stood up on the dock a video projector immediately cast an image of Nils Olof Bonnier’s honeycomb cell pattern onto my body; I began to read a text from a blank book, loudly addressing the crowd, competing with the noise of the festival. When the text reached its climax, describing Nils’ fated disappearance, not as murder or suicide, but as a choice he made to leave, I jumped into the river with my clothes on and swam away. | sv |
