Adam & Akay
* place and date of birth unknown
* lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden
The Swedish artist duo Akay and Adams is famous for their “GuiltyGuilty” artworks. Viewers of their works are immediately immersed in the action or, to be more exact, into the unauthorized, conspirative setting hosting their art in public space. According to Akay and Adams, the viewing of one of their “GuiltyGuilty” artworks represents nothing more than becoming a witness to a criminal act.
The artists themselves are, through their art, caught committing a crime and are not seldom filmed in the process. They again and again confront their audience with the questions: What will you do when you see a dead-still person lying on the street? Will you pause and just stare? Then you are part of the setting. Will you simply step over the lifeless body and continue on? Then you are an accomplice. Melding in the artist duo’s work are the margins between guilt and innocence, delinquency, complicity and lack of involvement, between fear of penalization and the extreme exertion of one’s own freedom.
The two artists are toying with the ambivalence and paradoxicality of vandalism and art, of hide-and-seek in the dark of the night and daytime exercising of artistic freedom – until the time comes for the word “criminal” to be newly defined for the realm of urban art in public space.
Three short films relating to works of Adam & Akay:
The Machine (3:08), The Box (5:54), Dressed for Success (4:19)
