The Umeå Institute of Design presents UID25, showcasing 40 innovative design projects from June 3-4. Students explore themes like AI, sustainability, and multispecies interaction. The event highlights design's role in shaping inclusive, empathetic futures and includes live-streamed presentations and discussions.
The UID25 Design Talks & Degree Show, on June 3, showcases cutting-edge tech innovations from Umeå Institute of Design graduates. Highlights include advancements in AI, VR, and interactive technologies, emphasizing creativity and accessibility in design. Join livestream or visit project gallery online.
Infinite Proposals is the title of this year’s Master’s exhibition from Umeå Academy of Fine Arts at Umeå University. It will be unveiled with an Art Friday at Bildmuseet on 23 May. A media preview will be held on Wednesday 21 May at 10:00–11:00 (RSVP). The newly graduated artists will be there to talk about their work.
Belkis Ayón (1967–1999) is one of Cuba’s most prominent artists. In the first Nordic presentation of the artist’s work, Bildmuseet presents creative highlights from her brief but intense career, from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. The exhibition opens on Art Friday, 23 March, and will be previewed to the media by arrangement from Monday, 19 May. Welcome!
![Anders Holmer, from the book Utflykt [The Excursion] (2025). Courtesy of the artist.](https://mnd-assets.mynewsdesk.com/image/upload/ar_16:9,c_fill,dpr_auto,f_auto,g_xy_center,q_auto:good,w_746,x_500,y_291/ajtoubkk227dij57uz4orn)
Anders Holmer’s Utflykt [The Excursion] has been named the Swedish Picture Book of the Year 2024. On March 14, in conjunction with the award ceremony at Littfest, Bildmuseet opens an exhibition of the original illustrations from the winning book.
"Shubigi Rao / Pulp I–IV," opening at Bildmuseet on March 14, is the first comprehensive survey of the artist’s decade-long project so far about censorship, destruction of books, assaults on literacy and libraries, erasure of women’s voices, and loss of languages.
Bildmuseet unveils a new site-specific iteration of Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s sound and light installation Machine Auguries, this time set in Umeå in northern Sweden. Premiere on 12 January! Presented alongside the previous iterations from London and Toledo, these three artificial dawn choruses from different parts of the world invite us to reflect on our relationship with nature.
With AI-generated birdsong under an artificial dawn sky, Machine Auguries warns of our infatuation with technology at the expense of nature. In Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s immersive sound and light installation, which opens at Bildmuseet on 18 October, the dawn chorus is slowly taken over by synthetic birdsong.
Military ceremonies, postage imagery, maps, and heritage sites that shape national identity and imbue it with meaning are the subject of Aseel AlYaqoub’s solo exhibition The View from Above, opening at Bildmuseet on 18 October.
In a world where design is often celebrated for its role in advancing humanity, it is important to also question this narrative through a critical lens. In her doctoral thesis, Anja Neidhardt-Mokoena investigates the role design has played in sustaining discriminatory and patriarchal systems.
With support from Cancerfonden, the Swedish Cancer Society, Umeå University will start a new cancer research school in the spring of 2025. The programme, which is unique in Sweden, is aimed at doctoral students throughout the country.
On 28 May, a new crop of young designers reveal their 40-plus design concepts to the world. At UID24 | Design Talks & Degree Show, an intriguing collection of innovations – ranging from farming tools in the age of climate change, to youth activism in the digital realm, to tactile music listening – will be unveiled.
This year's master's degree exhibition from the Academy of Fine Arts at Umeå University opens at Bildmuseet on 24 May. After Tomorrow at Sunrise features paintings, sculptures, installations, performance, photography, and film by eleven artists. Press preview on Wednesday, 22 May at 10:00 am (RSVP). Welcome!
People with post-COVID syndrome (PCS) following the COVID-19 infection often suffer from intense fatigue and dyspnea. This is what emerges from a new Nordic study led by Umeå University and recently published in the BMJ Public Health journal. High blood pressure also appears to be a risk factor for PCS diagnosis, according to the study’s findings.
![© Aron Landahl, from the picture book Alla äter alla [Everybody Eats Everybody], 2023. Courtesy of the artist.](https://mnd-assets.mynewsdesk.com/image/upload/ar_16:9,c_fill,dpr_auto,f_auto,g_sm,q_auto:good,w_746/kmka4uvzowjeq7qeynye)
On 15 March, an exhibition opens with Aron Landahl’s original paintings for Alla äter alla [Everybody Eats Everybody], selected as the year’s best Swedish picture book. The opening will take place during Bildmuseet’s Art Friday with Littfest – Umeå International Literature Festival.
Elias Crespin's mobile sculptures move slowly and gracefully in intricate, precise formations, seemingly floating freely in the air in a mesmerising exhibition on Bildmuseet’s top floor. Chronomorphosis opens at Bildmuseet on 15 March during Art Friday with Littfest – Umeå International Literature Festival.
Featuring photography, film, sculpture, drawing, textiles, sound and installations, including new commissions, the group show Eight Degrees opens on 15 March at Bildmuseet's Art Friday with Littfest – Umeå International Literature Festival.
Every year, the prestigious award Swedish Museum of the Year is presented. This year the prize could go to Bildmuseet, which is one of three nominated finalists. The award is given to the museum that has demonstrated courage, creativity, and excellence. The purpose of the award is to highlight exemplary museum work and to inspire other museums to innovative activities of the highest quality.
Umeå Institute of Design (UID) has once again clinched top position on the prestigious Red Dot Ranking. With an impressive streak of eight consecutive years at the helm, UID's design education continues to make its mark on the international stage.
On Friday, October 13th, Bildmuseet opens an exhibition by the artist Loulou Cherinet. For Bildmuseet, she has created a site-specific room installation inspired by early panorama painting and 19th-century cycloramas. Around forty, four-meter-high paintings come together to envelop the museum visitor in the illusion of an urban environment.