(Not So) Down and (Not So) Out

The "Ikea Disobedients" display and accompanying manuscript take a detailed dive into the lives and intimacies of people who don't quite fit the catalog of typical IKEA users. 

The term "Deviant" comes to mind, where an aggressive and tarnishing label is applied to folks that don't quite fit the bill for what we typically expect for users. Disobedients is used in this manuscript to accomplish the same goal of separation and degradation - where as the author is aiming to highlight their real lives and value of their efforts to just survive in the every day. To say that they are disobedient is to acknowledge the faults in the system judging what is and isn't "obedient". From these experiences of "disobedience" come initiatives and efforts to improve their own lives as well as those around them. These micro-histories are not unique, and are in fact international, where one regional example comes from Akira Drake Rodriguez where she documents the history of "deviants" of Atlanta's public housing.

These two examples of disobedience in larger systems give a taste of the everyday struggles that can come from urban life.

"IKEA Disobedients is a response to the world’s most important architectural actor, IKEA, and its promotion of homes as “independent republics” made of comfort and familiarity. Comprising alternative pop-up showrooms around the world, online-distributed movies, and the hacking of IKEA products; IKEA Disobedients reappropriates IKEA’s transmedia strategy to empower alternative domesticities, where otherness and engagement are encountered.

Launched in 2011, the work helped stop cases of eviction in Madrid, during the post-2008 financial crisis."

The timing of the exhibition speaks volumes to the importance of valuing the art that comes from the everyday. We're still living through an eviction crisis, with rent prices soaring as we (hopefully) approach the tail end of the pandemic - and who knows if our economy will ever be in the clear. Jaque's work serves as an acknowledgement and a warning to put real faces and experiences behind horrifying statistics of displacement.