​Public Enquiries symposium

Public Enquiries symposium Stockholm

November 26, at 1–5 pm.
Allaktivitetshuset, Sturegatan 10, Sundbyberg

Seating is limited so please book in advance by mailing: pub@marabouparken.se

Public Enquiries is a research project responding to the work of the artist Kerstin Bergendal with particular reference to her project PARK LEK. The wider critical art practice that PARK LEK epitomizes has brought together Marabouparken konsthall (the original Swedish commissioning agency), SOMEWHERE (Art and Public Space Agency, Copenhagen) and Valand Academy of Art (University of Gothenburg) in a collaboration around a book and a series of symposia that will explore the diverse problematics that Kerstin Bergendal’s practice has systematically activated and explored for several decades. A key goal of the project is to profile a mode of artistic practice and enquiry that engages questions of social practice, durational-though-temporary public art, participatory dynamics, critical urbanism, democratic processes and art outside the exhibitionary complex.

The three public symposia are organised in order to collect perspectives and gather material for the publication due in 2016. The dates of the symposia are: Stockholm (Sundbyberg) 26st November 2015, Copenhagen 28st of January 2016, Valand Academy Gothenburg 21st of April 2016.

Public Enquiries Stockholm

This first symposium in the series will be organised in Sundbyberg, the small municipality near Stockholm, where the PARK LEK project took place. Keynote speakers and respondents will focus on artistic practices, projects and methods that have developed seminal work outside the exhibitionary complex within corporations, local government or as part of social movements and civic initiatives. These contexts constitute starting points for artistic ventures that are often fuelled by the participation of the stakeholders. However, as soon as art leaves the designated art context it is often followed by a discussion of integrity and instrumentalisation. How are such art practices motivated, articulated and maintained outside the art institutions, often without exhibitions, events or even objects?

Speakers are:

Barbara Steveni (artist and founder of Artist Placement Group and O. & I.), Per Hasselberg (artist and director of Folkrörelsernas Konstfrämjande), Katrin Ingelstedt (freelance curator), Mathieu Vrijman and Malin Lindmark Vrijman (artists Kultivator) and Kerstin Bergendal (artist, PARKLEK project).

Respondents:

Lena From (Public Art Agency Sweden), Meike Schalk (architect and associate professor KTH Royal Institute of Technology), Anna Högberg & Johan Tirén (artists) and Réne León-Rosales (currently postdoctoral researcher at the Child and Youth Studies, Uppsala University).

The editorial team for the book comprises: Helena Selder (Marabouparken konsthall), Stenka Hellfach and Ulrikke Neergaard (Somewhere) and Mick Wilson (Valand Academy).

For further information about the Public Enquiries project please contact:

Helena Selder, Marabouparken konsthall, helena.selder@marabouparken.se, ph: +46708714591

Mick Wilson, Academy Valand, mick.wilson@akademinvaland.gu.seSOMEWHERE, ulrikke@artsomewhere.com, stenka@artsomewhere.com