Temporary Services & IC-98: It Is Always Like This
Sumu Residency Programme
1.9.-31.10.2008

http://tempserv.livejournal.com/

We are doing a residency, two workshops, and a collaborative project with
Turku-based collaborative duo Iconoclast.

Brett Bloom, Marc Fischer and Patrik Söderlund preparing the sandwich boards before they go out in the public

Temporary Services & IC-98: It Is Always Like This
Sumu Residency Programme
1.9.-31.10.2008

Everything in Turku, Finland, as in most cities, is in its predictable and expected place. Bikes lean against walls, signs hang on stores, advertisements are pasted on poles, and every fixture has an obvious function. The public art is predictable too. It's made from durable materials; it looks like it has been around forever and will stay around forever.

As a small but visible challenge to this tedious routine, the groups IC-98 (Turku) and Temporary Services (Chicago) have teamed up to build and circulate a series of 25 wooden sandwich board signs which carry phrases that advertise nothing and aren't always terribly positive. Many of the texts, written collaboratively by the two groups, point to our frustration with the monotony of city spaces and the high degree of political control that is exerted over them.

Not wanting to make something as fixed or permanent as the situations we are critical of, we have made the signs lightweight and given them handles. Passersby are free to move the signs as they wish. Our placements of them can be viewed as suggestions. We've created a situation that we can't control, just as we dont wish to be controlled by others.

About IC-98 and Temporary Services:

Both groups formed in 1998. IC-98 is Patrik Söderlund and Visa Suonpää. Temporary Services is Brett Bloom, Salem Collo-Julin and Marc Fischer. Members of the two groups first met in Puerto Rico in 2004. Among their common features is a shared concern with self-publishing and designing free publications. This is their first collaboration. A small booklet on this project will follow. Examples of Temporary Services' and IC-98's past booklets and books will remain on view at Titanik during their project.