Kämpaoke was a survey of historical, recent and current civil rights struggles, justice movements and the material traces they leave behind.
It’s was karaoke bar where you can sing, listen, make things, remember, be inspired, cry and laugh your head off, maybe dance and share the battles you are fighting in or have fought, locally, nationally and globally. Movements and slogans such as ¡No pasarán!, School Strike 4 Climate, White Silence is Violence; songs including Laleh’s Goliath, Dolly Parton’s Nine to Five or Jan Hammarlund’s Europa. It was a joint workshop where you could make new or be inspired by old banners, t-shirts, posters and other things that you can take home or add to the Kämpaoke’s ever-growing architecture. Kämpaoke was creating a living archive, a fighting library of words and songs that will be compiled in the Kämpaoke file while the banners, pins and flags will form its walls.
“We need a fighting library for the battles that are fought. The words, the pins, the caps, the hand-made scarves and banners is all that remains when we have forgotten our demands”, says Mariana Alves Silva, member of the artist group MYCKET.
The Kämpaoke took place at the Kulturfestivalen in Stockholm in August 2019. At Skeppsbron facing the Royal Palace a 50 sq m karaoke bar was built and an exhibition was mounted with events and activities led by various groups and personalities who have contributed material.
On MYCKET
The art, design and architect group MYCKET was founded in 2012 by designers, architects and artists Mariana Alves Silva, Dr. Katarina Bonnevier and Thérèse Kristiansson. They have developed an artistic research practice based on intersectional perspectives including anti-racism and queer feminism. Influenced by theatricality, carnivals and activism, they are active in the borderland between the lives we live and the built and designed world that surrounds us. Since 2016, MYCKET has expanded to include Ullis Ohlgren, interior architect and, in 2018, Anna Märta Danielsson, interior architect.