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At the Sollentuna Art Fair in 2001 for the first time he showed us the inside of the labyrinth, which had previously been invisible. In a sort of distribution centre or control room visitors could both see images and control minute video cameras. Some of these were mounted on probes, motorized robots or vehicles that moved about in the large ventilation ducts of the gallery above the heads of the visitors. In the dark spaces the probes had to carry searchlights, white light-emitting diodes or infrared light that gives a black and white or pale green image. The result was striking. In spite of the fact that very little actually happened, the moving images provided by the camera create a certain tension and level of expectation on the part of the viewers who lack references that would indicate a scale for the pictures on the monitor screen. Thus the images could remind viewers of scenes from horror films like Alien or underwater pictures of a sunken vessel such as the Estonia.

It is impossible to gain an overview of Johan Waerndt’s system of tunnels, ventilation ducts and labyrinths or to orient oneself within them in spite of the monitoring cameras inside and the network techniques. In his installation at the Moderna Museet the ventilation ducts give the impression of being a part of, or at least linked up with, the entire museum’s ventilation system. Monitors show images from inside the labyrinth. But the cameras do not just provide pictures. In their capacity as surveillance tools they also give us the impression that something is being guarded or investigated – either by us or by someone else. A system? What sort of a system? Why is it being studied? The way the work is staged can easily lead to conspiracy theories about hidden (power) structures, networks or infrastructures. Johan Waerndt can be viewed both as a builder of systems and a critic of them.

There are also screens showing pictures from elsewhere – including some from the Moderna Museet’s temporary premises on Klarabergsviadukten in Stockholm and from Electrohaus in Hamburg. These “other” places, that one can study in the work shown at the Moderna Museet, are parts of a “global structure” that Johan Waerndt is in the process of creating. Several such works or “places” are currently being created and one will be able to see them all at http://www.vsfsa.com which can be accessed from the Moderna Museet website. Viewers can also choose images and control cameras on this site. As a source of inspiration Johan Waerndt has pointed to the German artist Martin Kippenberg’s conceptual global subway network consisting of fictitious subway entrances, Transportable Subway Entrance, from 1997. In this work one can get on the subway in Helsinki and get off in São Paulo, for example.

Global Struktur för Sociala Djur (Global structure for social animals) is a sculpture or installation that physically takes up a great deal of room and that is made up of a large number of details, some of them prefabricated and joined together while others are carefully sculpted in expanded polystyrene. But this is also a sculpture in which the interior is made visible – and shows itself to contain a world of its own. To achieve this an interface is essential and this is provided by the monitors. The title also suggests that a social function is intended – which means that it acts as some sort of model. Perhaps one can see Johan Waerndt’s project as an allegory of power. An allegory of the visible and invisible, of infrastructures and systems that control us.

 

Magnus af Petersens

 

 

Johan Waerndt

Global Structure for Social Animals, 2005

© Johan Waerndt