The Falkenberg Encyclopaedia, 2024

public art project commissioned by Public Art Agency Sweden & Falkenbergs kommun; hanging mobile, textiles, printed curtains, artist's book, way-finding sign, and concept for a public park

The Falkenberg Encyclopaedia is a public art project for a school and library housed in the Argus Centre, in the Swedish coastal city of Falkenberg. In collaboration with adults and young people from the city, I set out to investigate how knowledge is sorted: which subjects are shelved within the library, what lessons are taught in the school, and what – ultimately – has been left out. Together we explored what we know, what we think we know, and what we may need to know in the (as yet unknown) future. Through discussions, games, mapping exercises and workshops, I engaged local residents in wide-ranging conversations which form the basis of The Falkenberg Encyclopaedia. The public library is transformed into a cabinet of curiosities – reflecting this deliberately incomplete catalogue of unrecognised, unvalued, underappreciated, rejected, and forgotten knowledge. Additionally, I was asked to develop a concept for the design of a new public park planned for an adjacent site.

Sections of The Falkenberg Encyclopaedia are present in and around the Argus Centre: hanging from the ceiling, printed onto curtains, in the library's children's area, as well as outside the building, where a way-finding sign is situated on the potential site for a new public park.

An artist's book functions as a key to the project and is inserted into various sections of the library's catalogue. Playfully mimicking the format and style of an encyclopaedia, the book was designed by Mia Frostner, Europa, and is published by Rian museum, Falkenberg.

By mapping its categories onto a landscape, The Falkenberg Encyclopaedia can also be used in the design of the new public park planned on site, making it into a theatrum mundi full of wonders designed to stimulate thought and imagination. However, unlike other encyclopaedias, The Falkenberg Encyclopaedia asks the viewer to remain conscious of the gaps and absences in a taxonomic system such as this.