Ministry Blog

At the Ministry it’s Odd Sock Day today, when the rest of the country is having a cold and wintery time. But in spite of subzero temperatures (-10 C this morning) and abundant snowdrifts and ice sheet we are heading for spring. The almanac and some tell tale signs are saying so… We are entering the “age of iciles” and reports about falling iciles (or rather iceblocks) have been common during the last 10 days or so. At the Ministry the thick snow sheet is living a retreating life under a harsh spring sun. Some days it’s plus and the spring flood is lurking around the corner. Some days it’s lots of water on the roads and in the ditches when the sun is starting to melt all the snow. The sunpanels on the Ministry-roof is already coming up to 80+ nowadays when the spring sun is out! But still, it will take some time for all this snow to disappear… As they say in the northern Norway:

“A few good summers, and we’ll be rid of this snow.”

On a different note. The Ministry is gearing up for spring and summer. After closing the fifth ARCHIVE-exhibition, next in line is now “Konstrundan” and a cooperation with a very famous swedish female electronica artist. Plans are cooking for the “Friction Performance Festival” in Uppsala which have invited HopArt in mid-June and also an unlikely 30 year Ladonia-related anniversary later on during the summer. But more about this further down the line!

Time to celebrate yet another posting milestone for the Ministry NewsBlog.  It is some time ago we passed post number 1400, and we’re heading for post number 1600… This means that the Ministry News Blog now contains 1600 articles for your enjoyment. Since the start of the blog there has been an increasing speed of growth. Several features has been added since the start.

Map over Europe in the year 1600.

Browse through the “Archives” and “Categories” or use the blogs own excellent search-engine to find items and articles, and experience what is going on, in, at and around the Ministry of Art & Jump.

From the start the blog was intended as a “News Blog” but the blog became an insight in the life of the artist and the Minister - which in fact is not always the same, or two different things. The Ministry News blog deals with everything that revolves around the Ministry of Art & Jump (which includes thoughts, ideas, art projects, philosophy, psychology, culture - and much more) about the Trinity: the Artist, the Minister and the Ministry.

Welcome back, and make this your browsers start page. If you use Firefox you can actually add several web pages as your start page/s. The Ministry supports and recommends the use of Firefox browser! It’s fast, free and safe (and very easy to use).

By the way, the map over Europe in 1600 is quite interesting. Some things are much the same and others are very different from today…

On Sunday February 28 the ongoing exhibition “ARCHIVE V - Spinoza Never Made it to Eslöv” will end. This is the weekend they didn’t play golf, it is the last chance to see the exhibition, and we are going out with a bang! It is a little bit like “Deliverance” meets Demolition Derby. The last day of the exhibition will be celebrated with a public disassembly! Take the chance to experience the exhibition on the last day! We are open 13-16 but we will start taking down the exhibition during this time! If you arrive late, you will miss it. Take the chance to see it before it’s gone! Skip Church, the TV-sofa or the Shopping and be able to tell your grandchildren what happened that weekend in early 2010 - that Sunday when we didn’t play golf…

“Art involving huge moving, or stationary, devices has great potential.”

“Art involving huge moving devices has great potential.”

Preparations are in full swing for the ending of the old year and also for the following (2010). First of all the Christmas at the Ministry! The exhibition at the Eslöv City Museum is running through the holidays. Exhibition period is from 29/11 to 28/2 2010. Then comes March and then it’s time for Easter and “Konstrundan” (2-5/4 2010). The Ministry has been contacted to build some sort of installation for the big collective exhibition at “Frostavallen” in Höör. That will be both spectacular and exciting! And another important preparation is for the Uppsala Performancefestival (10-13/6 2010) where the Ministry has been approached regarding HopArt in the historical City of Uppsala! It will be very interesting to perform in the Fyrisån (River Fyris). Additional projects are being planned for the festival, but that remains to be seen… More about all this in due time. But first of all solstice celebrations! (X-mas).

We have additional building at the White House. The Minister is mastering the art of deception - one week he’s carpenter, the other a bricklayer… We have also gone over to “Winter time”, daylight savings time is over. (Missed it as usual). The new time makes it darker earlier in the evenings and this brought to our attention a very poor headlight on the new black chariot. A quick glance made it obvious that the headlights were extremely low adjusted on the car. A thorough investigation as of how to adjust them properly took place before this rule of thumb was discovered: Park the car on level ground 1 meter from a wall, measure from ground up to center of headlights and subtract one (1) cm on the wall to get a proper adjusted headlight. Otherwise a banged up knee has gotten a lot better! For a while the MInister had to do all walking with a crutch (again) and every evening the minister was sooo tired in his right leg. During the week after the accident a X-ray of the knee was conducted and the resulting answer was that there seemed to be no damage to the skeleton (which was good news!). Apparently the pain and swelling just came from a banged tendon and a twisted meniscus…

The darkness has arrived with the of daylight savings time… Again we are cloaked in twilight around 3-4 and at 5 it’s pitch black… A depressing difference from summertime when the sun hardly sets at all. The construction job at the ministry is in full swing and a new roof has been raised and tar-papered in full storm. The chill factor was considerable…

Among all this a new exhibition has also been launched! ARCHIVE 5.