Waiting Room (2014)

Waiting Room, Erik Sjödin 2014

Waiting Room was a project for Survival Kit / Umeå, a five week art festival arranged by the artist run gallery Verkligheten in Umeå, which included furnishing a waiting room in the University Hospital of Umeå (one of the festivals exhibition venues) with a fishless aquaponics system and literature related to geodesic dome architecture and aquaponics.

The waiting room at Survival Kit / Umeå connects to the organisations Green Free Will's and Earth Organisation for Sustainability's ongoing efforts to build a "biodome" in Lögdeå, a small village outside of Umeå in Northern Sweden. A biodome is a dome shaped greenhouse with an aquaponics system for fish farming and vegetable cultivation. The aim with the biodome in Lögdeå is to find sustainable and comfortable solutions for local food production all year round, even during the cold and dark winters in Umeå. The waiting room aimed to introduce the biodome to a wider audience, place the biodome in a historical and contemporary context, and examine geodesic dome architecture and aquaponics. The project also included facilitating a seminar about the biodome.

The literature in the hospital waiting room included the following books:

The Book of The New Alchemists, by The New Alchemists
Drop City, by Peter Rabbit
From Bauhaus to Ecohouse, by Peder Anker
Eating In, by Sally Silverstone
Ideas and Integrities, by Buckminster Fuller
Shelter, by Lloyd Kahn

Waiting Room, Erik Sjödin 2014
In the waiting room there was also a publication produced for Suvival Kit / Umeå which included an essay on domes and aquaponics and contributions from Green Free Will and Earth Organisation for Sustainability. During the biodome seminar Alexander Bascomb and Enrique Lescure from Green Free Will and Earth Organisation for Sustainability presented their organisations and their work with the Biodome in Lögdeå.

Thanks to Survival Kit / Umeå and Verkligheten, Umeå Pantry and My Villages, Green Free Will, Earth Organisation for Sustainability, Sujy Lee, Stefano Papazian, Alexander Svartvatten, Bildmuseet i Umeå, and Längmanska kulturfonden.