Published in 2011, Teju Cole’s second novel Open City tells the story of one year of walking in New York and Brussels narrated from the perspective of the novel’s first-person narrator, Julius. In this manner the reader is offered ample insights into Julius’s thoughts and memories. This is a narrative based on the memories of the protagonist as well as the memories shared by the people he meets, which together create a narrative “fugue” that both hides and illuminates the central conflicts of the novel. Julius can be described both as fugueur (someone who is in a dissociated mental state and travels compulsively) and flaneur (someone who walks the streets and is obsessively observant), two concepts of ambiguity. This paper will analyze the main character’s development through three stages: reunion, repression, and reconstruction, in relation to Walter Benjamin’s reading of the flaneur as both criminal and detective, and Ian Hacking’s book on fugueurs in the 19th century. Furthermore, this memory-based narrative can be read in relation to Wai Chee Dimock’s idea of deep time, as well as Rothberg’s view of memory as multidirectional and productive, two theories that can be linked to “mad” travelling and obsessive observation. This paper tries to bring clarity to this opaque novel of solitude and repression, and sort out the clues given by the narrator.

The project aims to elevate Halmstad’s historical and contemporary culture. Today, the artistic practice is conducted in separate and closed of cultural clusters. By givning the city a new addition, the Cultural Beacon, the project aims to work in two ways. The first is “to be seen”, in order to attract people of Halmstad to engage and practice its culture. The second is “to show”, in order to illuminate what already is there, and to build upon the resources in the existing cultural clusters. By doing so, the new addition does not only nurture the practice of the city’s culture, but even more important, it nurtures the exchange of culture both between individuals and the collectives, in order to create a more open and inviting city for its residents and visitors to take in. The program of the building consists of three parts. The maker space (to engage the city’s residents in cultural activities), the workers space (to support the existing cultural clusters with space for producing and rehearsing) and the exhibition space (to showcase the story of the city’s culture). These work both separately and collectively in order to link different groups of people and encourage exchange of culture.

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