Video Screening:
Du Gamla, Du Fria

SALT Beyoğlu, Walk-in Cinema

Öyvind Fahlström
1971, 100”
Swedish with English subtitles

A street theatre company wants to change the Swedish social democratic system. They want to reach the public through action-based theater performances that are set up at a number of work places. After a while, however, the members of the group realize that these “political actions” have no effect or relevance, so they then turn against their own lifestyle and establish a “community living” project in the countryside. It soon becomes apparent that this is not a great success either…

In the wake of tactics of withdrawal and anonymity being reconsidered within the realm of social activism—in favor of deliberately undetermined and open-ended modes that insist, instead, upon occupation as a mode of address—it would be timely to consider what is at stake in maintaining the position that in the face of seemingly incontestable forces, the only thing left to do is to do nothing at all.