Kjersti Andvig and Lars Laumann's 'Redd oktober' at Pachinko, Oslo

The collaborative project 'Redd oktober' by Kjersti G. Andvig and Lars Laumann at Pachinko in Oslo explores class identity through a family archive. The artists work in Andvig's family's former bookstore in Northern Norway, which was radicalized by her grandfather after the 1967 Six-Day War in Palestine, leading him to join the communist party AKP (ml) and start Oktober forlag in 1970. The bookstore distributed political theory through self-organized outlets. In an 18-minute film, the duo, wearing hazmat suits, catalogues a decaying book collection using an obscure system: first by mold-free status, then by subjective criteria like Andvig's liking for the red cover of Stalin's collected works. The exhibition also features neatly arranged books, pamphlets, and vinyl records for public browsing. Alongside sorting, the artists engage in a lighthearted debate about whose family is 'more working class'—Andvig's 'hopeless city folk' who failed at farming but ran a political book outlet, versus Laumann's family who ran a regular bookstore for profit. They have developed a dice game to rank families from least to most working class, with rules still unclear. The film is open, affectionate, and comedic, resonating with those on the political left, recalling youthful debates over who was 'most working class.' Despite its searching quality, the film is visually unpretentious and offers a comfortable space of two old friends figuring things out together.