January - The Shallowness of our Times

None of us want to be excluded against our will. But can't we all feel some of that uselessness and superficiality in our world, ask ourselves what we are doing and where we are heading? What is the reason? How to fight loneliness by Wilco is a song that reflects the necessity, that is brought on us, to simply fit in, to ideals and norms that we don't even understand what they are or why they exist.

Another good reflection of where we are right now in the Western world is the film The Emperor's New Clothes by Russel Brand and Michael Winterbottom. As many other people who are critical to the situation in the world they try to ask questions, and they do have some good perspectives. But what is so typical for our epoch is that rather than asking fundamental questions and demanding answers, the protests become like theatrical acts showing that the world is hopeless and that nothing can be done.

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December - Hidden Reasons to the Superficiality

The Rolling Stones – Songs about the Western Frustration

I Can't Get No Satisfaction and Get Off of My Cloud by The Rolling Stones are as valid today as in 1965 when they were released.

The flow of ”useless information supposed to fire my imagination” is something we can relate to. And for sure many have the wish to stop being bugged by the constant stream of meaninglessness that steals so much attention.

Ai Weiwei – Imagination as Water

To be stuck in a situation of superficiality is reflected in the short film The Sand Storm. In this movie the population lacks one of life's most essential elements: water. Ai Weiwei stars as the artist that brings them what they thirst for.

The Sand Storm if built on metaphors in order to get through the censorship that is obvious in China, where this movie is made.

That it is harder to understand how this censorship relates to the Western world is because the censorship in the West is hidden.

The Hunger Games – Exposes the Hidden Suppression and Censorship

Good examples of the hidden suppression in the West are brought up in The Hunger Games series. The final out of four movies is running in theaters right now and the marketing has probably caught some attention from most of you, and you have probably noticed that it seems to be just another super hero story.

Even if the core message of this movie is a clear protest against the current ideals in our society; this core is not outspoken but hidden by layers that more or less eliminate the core message. It is most likely that in order to be able to make this film, the filmmakers have had to fit their story into the existing structures; in other words they have had to turn against their own message. Read our exploration of The Hunger Games to get the usually hidden connections between art and our real world.

November - Hello Again!

We are super happy to see that you are still coming to visit Väggen försvinner, more than ever.

As you keep coming back you all agree with us that our posts are valid regardless of posting date.

If you have ideas, questions or any other thoughts, don't hesitate to send us an email. And you're all more than welcome to share your wall expressions.

From now on we will post regularly: now and then.

November - Are you normal?

Today Väggen försvinner turns 1 year and is yet still only in the beginning of the beginning, because as Bob Dylan sings,”it's not dark yet, but it's getting there”.

In 1970 the movie The Conformist exposed the core of the concept normal as an ingredient in the rule of fascist Italy, and this ideal of normalcy has survived and is no longer associated with fascism.

To conform, to be normal, is still the core of the Western society today. The result is that vital questions disappear, as in the case with the Banksy painting, as well as the messengers that are a threat to the conformity must be killed, as in the movie Kill the Messenger.

Yet to dissolve this system of suppression we need to keep asking questions and discuss them openly. How can this system be successfully declared as a democracy at the same time as it is promoted as the only possible worldview?

Citizenfour is a documentary about Edward Snowden and the mass surveillance he disclosed in 2013. What will happen next? Who will be the next whistleblower/victim of this so called democratic system?

Prince and 3RDEYEGIRL give an upbeat message about shifting from the conformity in their song Fixurlifeup: ”when you’re just another brick in the misogynistic wall of noise … don’t worry about what the crowd does, just worry about being good at what you love”.

October - A demand that holds you down and an antidote

In the end of September the Guardian launched a Neo-Stalinist Art Theory through a video clip by Alain de Botton where he asks and answers the question what art is actually for. Art is here presented as a narcotic tranquillizer that can do nothing but pacify and enslave us, as the definitions also take away all other opportunities of what art can be.

Two weeks later an article about the War on Drugs was published in Pitchfork. This article describes the process of making their latest album Lost in the Dream and shows how it is possible to use the process of making music, or any kind of art, to move on from isolation and into a life that you actually want to live. This is why they are the perfect antidote to the extremely restricted idea about art that The Guardian promotes.

If you want to see a movie that exposes the consequences of the hierarchical Western tradition and you're in Britain, go see The Riot Club that is now running in British theaters.

You might have noticed that Väggen försvinner ha a new logo? Our new logo is a manifestation of the new version of our activities with an expanding database of perspectives on the wall. The recent big step taken is Väggen försvinner on Twitter, where you from now on will get interesting news about and from artists we have written about as well as opportunities to more new perspectives on the wall and on how it can be dissolved.

Follow @walldisappears

September - Revealing Revolution and Folk Music

A little more than a month has passed since a new era began. Väggen Försvinner has become the seed to a database of movies and music that all show different angles and shades of the wall. Together all the perspectives gained through V-Art will paint a more and more clear picture.

Since the premiere we have presented a new Essential V-Perspective, the documentary Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, that makes it obvious that we live in a world with no clear answers to fundamental questions. A few days ago the world also got to view the result of what Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina have been doing since their release from imprisonment over hooliganism charges in December 2013, after performing a protest song against the leadership of Russia. The outcome of their work is the Russian news outlet MediaZona (easily translated to your language through Google translate), that reports on what other Russian media are banned from covering, such as human rights abuses by Russian courts and law enforcement and any critisism against Putin's policies.

Bob Dylan is another significant addition to V-Art and V-Music, this time with his 1963 song Only A Pawn In Their Game. Bob Dylan was an essential link between traditional folk music and popular culture, he brought music with substance and intention to a wider scene by going electric, and played a large role in the emerge of the whole music genre of folk rock.

And you haven't missed that there are now hitchhiking robots, have you? Just a few days after our publishing of the story of HitchBOT, the goal of the hitchhiking trip, Victoria on the west coast of Canada, was reached, and the first-ever hitchhiking trip by a robot was completed.

We begin a new era

Today we present V-Art. On Väggen försvinner you will be regularly updated with art, in form of movies and music that depict the wall. More about V-Art.

Today we also publish a teaser of our online course Connect THE Dots, that will give you the connections that the school and the academic tradition has hidden for you.

And since the wall is hidden, an understanding of that it exists and what it is will become an opening. We have dedicated a page to a description of the wall.

We have also created a page for your wall expressions.