Even In The Rain, Gothenburg Is Delightful...

Gothenburg is a stark contrast to Stockholm - it is equally beautiful but much less conservative. With such a large student population, you can really sense the subculture vibe. Everywhere there are music shops, art supply stores, second hand clothes shops and the like. Also, this place is overrun with young (and stunning!) parents.

The streets are clustered with cafes and restaurants at the base of tall, gorgeous buildings; there are plenty of pretty squares, canals and fountains.






The pedestrian shopping areas of Gothenburg are quite distinctively pleasant, with their little passageways, historic buildings and gourmet markets.








One of the more historic pedestrian areas, called Haga, was essentially one street of about five blocks, lined with antique shops, gourmet food shops, artisans and home decorating stores.





It was flanked by oddly non-descript streets on either side. Strange.



I figured I should venture into at least one church in Sweden, so I chose at random:



I was impressed by the simplicity and the graphic-ness of the paintings, and I like the globe thingy.




As for museums, I chose the World Culture Museum. The main exhibit - Take Action: 83 Ways to Change the World - was excellent.



I thought his exhibit was really cool. I should have taken a picture of the eyes - they were so real as to be unnerving.




It covered DIY culture in terms of fashion, media and craftivism - check out Jules Ikea Hacker.

There was a cool installation on Revolutionary-themed design for the home - this is just one over 10 examples of similar boxes with everything from gas masks to flowers:



There were sections devoted to resistance like non-violence and civil disobedience, highlighting certain groups like CIRCA (Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army).



There were also individual stories, one of which sticks in my mind - Iqbal Masih:



In Pakistan, he was sold into bonded labour at four years old, and chained to a loom for six years where he was constantly beaten and abused. After he and some of his friends from the carpet factory managed to escape, he openly spoke about the brutality of child slavery, and his story echoed around the world. This of course was a threat to Pakistani authorities and carpet producers, and on April 16 1995, Iqbal was murdered, at 13 years old.

There were installations on the Zapatistas, Apartheid, and the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, as well as plenty of info on agriculture and economics, like efforts to establish seed banks and banks for the poor.

I love all these ideas...no traditional art museum can provoke this kind of interest in me. I'd like to say I get something out of all that high culture stuff at the world's renowned museums, and I suppose I do, but contemporary culture is where it's at for me.

So Gothenburg gets a big thumbs up. Now, after three weeks in Sweden, I'm off to Switzerland!