ANTI-HANDIKAPP (Anti-Disability) is a series of sculptures made out of stones that have been removed from the built environment as part of accessibility modifications and are preserved indefinitely by the National Property Board. The stones presented at Tensta Konsthall are a section of stairs cut out from the entrance to Dramaten, the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. The state is legally obliged to save architectural features removed from listed buildings, in case human impairments or assistive devices change in such a way in the future as to allow these extracted obstacles to be re-installed. Goldin+Senneby’s series borrows its title form the activist group Anti-Handikapp, which was founded in Lund in 1969 by Vilhelm Ekensteen. He was also the first person to introduce the social model of disability in Sweden, and through their activism Anti-Handikapp not only demonstrated how the built environment disables, but also proclaimed that ultimately disability is a product of “the demands for efficiency and principles of profitability of the prevailing production system”.
Photo: Jean-Baptiste Béranger / Tensta Konsthall.
Goldin+Senneby är en svensk konstnärsduo, bestående av Simon Goldin och Jakob Senneby.