Utopian World Championship

UWC News

All articles in this category

 

THE UTOPIAN W.C. IN 2009: FACING A NEW DAY

Posted: 2010-01-07 | by: Jon Brunberg


You could say that 2009 was the year that the Utopian World Championship woke up from a long sleep, shook her head, wiped the grains out of her eyes and and started a new day with a strong cup of coffee.

We were really in need of a break in 2005 after the second Utopian W.C. Gala, mainly because the artist group SOC.Stockholm, which arranged the championship at that time, was in disarray and on its way to disband. Me and my colleague Annika Drougge thus took the sole responsibility of managing the project. It was after all our baby. But the process of disbanding SOC took almost two years and by the time we were through that phase we had a lot of other things on our hands. The project went into deep sleep.

The first sign of an awakening came in 2007 when Staffan Lundgren of the publishing house Axl Books and I started to discuss the possibility of doing a book project together, and the texts from the Utopian W.C. came up as a strong candidate. The Foundation for the Future of the Culture contributed with funding to the printing, but the process of actually creating the books took another two years, and was in the end published by Raketa Press.

Finally, in september 2009, the two volumes arrived from the printer. One volume each for the two winning essays by T.R.O.Y. and Cyril Belshaw. These volumes have yet to be officially released and  distributed. We have also to distribute Beshaw´s essay to Heads of State and other institutions and individuals, a comittment that is yet to be fulfillled, but a work that we have  commenced when we delivered the first copies of the essays to the Spokesperson of the Swedish Green Party, Maria Wetterstrand, at her office in the Parliament in Stockholm in October 2009.

This meeting was the result of a poll by a Swedish newspaper among Swedish politicians about their cultural preferences, that was part of a intense public debate about cultural policies that raged in Sweden in 2009. Two representatives from the publisher Raketa Press were also present at the meeting and took the photos that you can view on this page.

We hope that we will have exciting news for you in the coming months, so stay connected! The Utopian World Championship is facing a new day!

Jon Brunberg, January 7, 2010.