A backpack get placed on Charles de Gaulle airport in France as a deliberate act and an attack.

Charles de Gaulle is one of Europe's most supervised airports. A person puts down and leaves a backpack in
the airport. Before leaving, the person photographs the bag. This action shows the surveillance cameras
that everything is intentional and that the backpack is not forgotten. The bag is closed and locked with a
padlock in the zipper opening. This means that it can not be easily opened. The backpack is meant as an attack
in the airport.

Studies of art, photography, postcolonial theory and my own experience of traveling as a tourist in Asia are
behind my decision to perform the action. I am convinced that the action is worth doing for a number of
important reasons. Placing the bag like this at Charles de Gaulle airport can scare, shock and hurt individuals.
A part of the airport may be blocked by the security guards and people on their way to or from their flights
might be disturbed. The ethical problem of exposing other people to my actions is included in my calculations.
I justify the action with theories of how the system itself is so much more violent, wrong and destructive.

"For security reasons, baggage left unattended will be removed and destroyed."

The contents of the backpack are pictures. These images consist of scanned material from travel brochures and
travel commercials printed on photo paper and then cropped to 10x15cm format. Nothing but a large number
of these pictures lies in the bag. The selection is made to represent a typical representation of the world through
a European travel commercial perspective. The backpack contains something that the tourism industry
generates. Images that constitute the curent world order.

The security system, the structure and the strictly disciplined architecture are tangible. I'm up in this with
intentions about it as art. Flying with the bag containing only pictures is part of a performance work. Passing
the bag through the X-ray machine at the airport worries me. Perhaps I will face suspicion and questions.
I'm afraid to be remembered, or that security staff should notice this as something strange, so that I can later
be linked to the Charles de Gaulle airport attack and seized as a terrorist


The Backpack Essay pdf (Language: Swedish)


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"Frågeställningar rörandes perception och representation är på flera sätt närvarande i Kristoffers
konstnärsskap. Poetiska reflektioner varvas med politiska ställningstaganden om hur vi förhåller oss
till medieringen av det offentliga/personliga rummet. Återkommande är ett användande av uttryck och
beteckningar kring "yta". Så som bilden eller språkets ytlighet. Men vad är då denna yta för
någonting?
I projekt om turism blir delar ur den samtida vågsurfingkulturen till metaforer för hur turister rör sig och
utövar makt. Estetiserade uttalanden om något starkt politiskt laddat inom populärkulturen. Och inte
minst går verket "Ryggsäcken" att se som ett inlägg i en diskussion rörandes estetisering av politik."