Works

Y’all Better Quiet Down!/Hallå, kan ni lugna ner er!


2013

HD video 9 mins color/sound, c-print, table.—I do not believe in a revolution, but you ought to!

The American/Puertorican transactivist and Young Lords member Sylvia Rivera is said to have cast the first stone during the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York. She is also one of the founders of the aid organization S*T*A*R (Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries), whose main goal was to keep young homeless transgender and queer people off the streets. In connection with the 1973 Christopher Street Day Parade, Rivera delivers a powerful and defining speech in the Washington Square Park, accusing the then relatively new-formed LGBT rights movement of being white, neoconservative, excluding, racist and transphobic. Rivera is thrown off the stage, and after this incident, she leaves the political scene as well as New York City entirely for 20 years.

Y’all Better Quiet Down!/Hallå, kan ni lugna ner er! is based on a transcript of Rivera’s speech. Together with the queer/feminist theater group Kvalitétsteatern and special guests, working in a collective spirit, a performative manifestation is created. The contemporary vision of Rivera’s words is translated and amplified, while given form through the bodies of a collective.

Y’all Better Quiet Down!/Hallå, kan ni lugna ner!, installation view, Kalmar Art Museum, 2013. Photo: Conny Karlsson Lundgren.
Y’all Better Quiet Down! (After Leonard), Kalmar Art Museum, 2013. Photo: Conny Karlsson Lundgren.
Y’all Better Quiet Down! (After Leonard),  c-print. Documentation of vintage print by Leonard Fink in the archive/ LGBT Community Center, NYC,
Y’all Better Quiet Down!/Hallå, kan ni lugna ner! film still. Cinematography: Minka Jakerson.
Y’all Better Quiet Down!/Hallå, kan ni lugna ner! excerpt 3.10 mins (full length 9.40 mins). Cinematography: Minka Jakerson.

Text: Sylvia Rivera. Starring: Kvalitétsteatern (Robin N Spegel, Francine Agbodjalou, Eddie Mio Larsson, Johanna Essie Sjögren), featuring: Aleksa Lundberg and Bruno Hibombo. Director and Editing: Conny Karlsson Lundgren. Cinematography: Minka Jakerson. Grading: Ulf Lundén. Sound: Jesper Norda. Sound Recordist: Felix Aneer. Scripta: Hanna Johansson. Assistant: Mike Karlsson Lundgren. Swedish translation: Eli Levén and the Participants.
Y’all Better Quiet Down!/Hallå, kan ni lugna ner er! is an independent part of the work series The Sylvia Fractions in the solo exhibition with the same name at Kalmar Art Museum in 2013. Other works in the series include 87 Sylvia and The Jane/Joan Dialogues. Made possible through the archive at the LGBT Community Center, New York US, with funding from IASPIS: the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual and Applied Arts.Exhibitions: Kalmar Art Museum, Kalmar SE. IASPIS Open Studios, Stockholm SE. Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht NL. Skövde Konsthall, Skövde SE, Svilova Gallery, Gothenburg SE. Norrtälje Konsthall, Norrtälje SE. Screenings: UCCA: Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing CH. Moderna Museet, Stockholm SE.



 ©MMXIV Conny Karlsson Lundgren