Nothing is More Optimistic than Stjärnsund

“Nothing is More Optimistic than Stjärnsund” consists of twenty modified padlocks which can be interconnected to create chains or assemblages, as the collector or curator sees fit. The piece is intended as a construction kit with a plethora of possible combinations, like a Meccanno, and is a hommage to Lygia Clark's "Relational Objects". The title is a statement from the diary of the great naturalist Carolus Linnaeus, one of the fathers of modern ecology, from when he visited one of the first automated factories in Stjärnsund, Sweden in the 18th century. The pictures below show some sample arrangements for the kit.

"Now, the bond in question, far from being a communion, is one that fastens but does not complete (one that accomplishes nothing but a knot that preserves separation-and that also contains the possibility of inequality and domination. Incompletion [inaccomplissement] is the very condition of politics. Fastening is the very condition of literature. The two imply one another without ever infusing or transcending one another", (Jean-Luc Nancy "Around the Notion of Literary Communism", p. 25, Multiple Arts. the Muses II)

General info

Spanish name:
Nada es Más Optimista que Stjärnsund
French name:
Rien n’est plus optimiste que Stjärnsund
Year of creation:
2010
Technique:
20 modified padlocks, keys, metal certificate
Dimensions:
Each padlock 8 x 5 x 3 centimeters
Keywords:
indoor, recorder
Edition:
12 Editions, 1 AP
Collectors:
private collectors

Exhibitions


Credits

  • Production Assistance: Pierre Fournier, David Lemieux, Karine Charbonneau

Bibliography