Syndicate: MS Stubmitz in Stockholm

[CM von Hausswolff <krev@it.kth.se>]

>Stockholm 10.06.98
>
>On the 1st June 1998, some 10 to 15 Swedish Customs Agents 'discovered'
>and
>boarded German Culture Ship- M.S. Stubnitz, and began, what lasted for 2
>
>days, a search for contraband. M.S. Stubnitz actually arrived in
>Stockholm
>on the 31st May, without (the crew were later to discover)the normal
>protocol of Customs notification having been observed. In fact, the ship
>
>was invited by the Swedish '98 Culture Committee as part of the European
>
>Culture Capital activities.
>M.S Stubnitz has behind it, some 800 events made in less than 5 years,
>it
>serves as a cultural platform for diverse activities and stands openly
>against intolerance, organising different workshops which
>encourage young and old to learn or share skills.
>Swedish Customs agents, whilst searching in a room normally used by
>guest
>musicians and artists, discovered approximately 3-4 grams of very old
>and
>decaying hashish, (or)cannabis. Also discovered, in this intensive
>search
>was an electrical shocker device, which in Germany is sold openly to
>women
>as an anti-rape, self-defence tool. In a coincidental visit by Swedish
>television both these illegal (in Sweden) items were shown by smiling
>customs agents to an 'ABC' camera crew. In the same
>reportage, close up shots of graffiti tags and rusted metal set the tone
>
>for what was to erupt into a so-called scandal. The following day
>Swedish
>National tabloid newspaper 'Expressen' featured a page 3,
>three quarter page article, with the headline 'Partyboat full of Drugs'.
>
>Part of the costs for M.S. Stubnitz
>travel-to and stay in Stockholm came from the Culture Capital '98
>Committee, the balance of the financial equation was planned to come
>from
>the sale of alcohol, in point of fact German 'Rostocker Pils' beer-
>approximately three barrels per day to sustain the ships stay in
>Stockholm.
>Following the furor caused by Swedish Media, the license for the sale of
>
>alcohol, up to the point of writing this memo, has not been forthcoming.
>A
>specifically designed internet system, intended to transmit up-to-the
>minute sound and video from the concert and performance activities, lays
>
>idle without promised ISDN telephone lines. As event co-ordinator, I
>personally wait for the installation of a telephone/fax link to the
>outside
>world, deadlines and important points of information exchange are not
>systematically manageable.
>The event programme in itself, which is a collaboration between "The
>Nursery" organisation,  Stockholm: a non-profit society promoting
>experimental music and arts both from National and International
>'scenes'
>fused together with MS Stubnitz' event curriculum, has already received
>critical acclaim from both the Stockholm music and 'quality' press.
>Sympathies from the established art scene are gratifying, however, still
>
>the general public perception of M.S.Stubnitz remains one of 'drug ship'
>
>and, moreover, that the ship is in fact closed and impounded, with the
>crew
>in jail.
>
>Six months of planning and co-ordination, involving a core of some 50
>volunteers and hundreds of supportative musicians, technicians,
>agencies,
>and organisations from the established culture and buisness world to
>independent, sub-cultural co-ops. The question of narcotics is indeed a
>contentious one and, ironically, critical to the very survival of this
>project: already the ship has gone beyond the border, whereby the
>calculation to ensure a satisfactory 'break-even' of the ships finances
>is
>no
>longer possible: no beer license means no survival, the Stubnitz crew,
>made
>up of Swedish, French, English, Swiss, East & West Germans ask, with
>respect, that they be allowed to continue producing a top-level event
>programme and that they are permitted to sustain themselves to this end
>by
>the
>selling of intoxicating liqour, such as is the norm in a 'United'
>Europe.
>
>John Nicholas Moulden/ 'Coost' for M.S. Stubnitz

more info http://www.flashback.net/~nursery

-----------------------------------------------------

Carl Michael von Hausswolff
c/o Rahm, Roslagsgatan 58, S-113 54 Stockholm, Sweden
phone: +46 (0)8 612 27 03 (alt.+ fax 08 668 4234)