The Art Line website got launched earlier this year, in April. It was developed by web-agency Modondo situated in
Karlskrona, just above the campus of Blekinge Institute of Technology. It´ll be continually enriched with the
addition of even more functions and apps. The storytelling-project Telling the Baltic will soon get an additional
blog, linked to from the Art Line website. On this blog you´ll be able to read up on the process and progress of
the project; see and hear the collected stories before they get handed over to the choosen artists and transformed
into works of art.Recently Art Line entered Facebook. On Art Lines Facebook-page you can read up on events,
exhibitions, workshops and more related to the project, as well as start or take part in started discussions about
practical and theoretical concerns regarding contemporary art in specific and/or art in general. Also make sure
to check up Art Line on Youtube, which is the place where the project stores its videos, and
Soundcloud, which is the place where it stores its sound-clips. Keep your eyes peered at the Art Line News
page for information on when Art Line enters Flickr. From Flickr you will be able to download and use
photographs taken during the project. All the photographs will comply to the Creative Commons
licensing rules, more specifically CC BY.

From the very beginning the plan for the website of was to utilize it as a Digital Art Platform, as a
digital exhibition venue for all works of art produced during the projects three year life-span. Parallell to
the realization of these works of art the Digital Art Platform of Art Line will take a clearer shape.
It´ll function as an exhibition venue in the comfort of your own home; a venue that is just a click away.

What is happening and what has happened?

In Your Head

At The 7th of May Kalmar konstmuseum had their first so called Beta test, an experiment relating to art in the public
space.

The Berlin-based artist Gustav Hellberg was contacted by Kalmar konstmuseum which resulted in an outdoor
installation in the city-park of Kalmar. Hellberg calls the installation In Your Head, and it highlights the hermeneutics of
fear; how the fear of the unknown creates a destructive circle; creates even more fear which may,
or rather possibly will lead to protectionism. But then, what is it we are afraid of? From where do our
fears stem, and will us knowing from where it stems aid us in breaking the circle of fear?
Visit Kalmar konstmuseum to experience In Your Head. The installation is
part of the exhibition Return of the Losers which will run at
Kalmar konstmuseum until the 4th of September.

Art & Science seminar in Gdansk

From the 23d to 25th of May Art Line partner Laznia CCA was in charge of an international seminar
entitled Towards the Third Culture, the Co-Existence of Art, Science and Technology which was held at
Artus Court in Gdansk. During three days lecturers from Poland, Sweden, England, Germany,
USA, Canada and France held lectures relating to the interstice between art and technology.

In relation to the lectures, thre eexhibition-tours were given to the participants.The first one was entitled
The Pleasure of Light. The second one Performing Data and the last one Blue Morph.
At the last day of the seminar Art Line project leader Torun Ekstrand held a lecture telling all present
about Art Line, about its primary aim to create and strengthen a collaborative network between
art-institutions and academia in the South Baltic region.

Art and Apparatus

The collaborative project entitled Art and Apparatus had its first workshop on the 14th of June, on board
the Stena Line ferry. Participating artists got informed about the watercutting- and 3D-modelling technology;
a technology they´re going to use when creating works of art during up and coming Art and Apparatus
workshop II and III.

Cows, Tractors and Art

On show right now at Blekinge County Museum and continuing until the
18th September 2011 are Polish artists Julita Wójcik´s Unistic Landscape and
Łukasz Skąpskis Machines.

Julita Wojcik asks herself if it is somehow possible to communicate advanced theories of art and
utopias to cows. During the 1920- and 1930′s Władysław Strzemiński in co-operation with
Katarzyna Kobro developed the theory of Unism; a theory inspired by constructivism that
tackled the issue of art´s utopian role in society. Unism is relatively unknown in Sweden.
The role of art is, according to Unism supposed to function as a role-model or an ideal
example of all human activity. The unity between the artifact, or the place of its coming to existence,
and nature was highlighted.

In a dress especially sown for the occassion Julita Wojcik paraphrases snippets of the theory of Unism,

almost like reciting a recipe to be followed, standing in a cow-pen surrounded by cows whose
patterns are somewhat reminiscent of the abstract paintings of Strzemiński. She is having
a hard time reaching unity, having a hard time of reaching the ambition regarding art´s
utopian role in society set out by Strzemiński and Kobro. What is abstract and what is real;
what is possible and what is impossible?

In Poland, before the fall of the wall an in the era of socialism, a lot of farmers used to construct tractors
from recycled spare parts belonging to different machinery. Tractors were in high demand among the
Polish farmers. There just weren´t enough to go around, which resulted in ingenious and artistic
tractor-creations. The Polish artist Łukasz Skapski has photographed these creations together with
their creators.

Baltic Sounds Good

On the 1st July the audio-art project Baltic Sounds Good will kick off. Artists are to be chosen and plans
are to get laid out. Within this project selected artists will gather sounds from the Baltic Sea
and the city of Elblag in Poland using different recording equipment. In charge of this project
is Art Line partner Art Centre Gallery EL.

Contest and Art Packages

Art Line partners Baltic Sea Cultural Centre and Gdansk City Gallery are in charge of a contest
that will soon get carried out. More information about the contest can be found on the
Art Line website.

During the three year life span of Art Line two art-travel packages will get
composed to further the artistic and cultural aspects of the South Baltic region.
Project leader Torun Ekstrand has been in contact with members of the
EU-project Interface, with Stena Line, tourist offices in Sweden and regional
art associations. As part of this project an art-map is planned to get created
which will guide people to sites of artistic interest in the South Baltic region.

For more information about all the projects that has been carried out and will get carried out within the framework

of project Art Line, stay tuned in to the Art Line website. There´s a lot more to come.
The project will run until 2013, where each year is divided into two periods.
All in all this adds up to a total of six periods. Art Line´s first period ends
at the last of June, at that point entering its second period which is to the brim filled with
activities, workshops and events. During this second period – just to choose one thing -
a seminar will be held at Blekinge Institute of Technology in co-operation with Art Line´s
associated partner in Kaliningrad, NCCA. The seminar will focus on digital technology and
how the advent of this technology has altered how we, human beings, act and re-act in the
world.

Joint Development

A primary aim within project Art Line is to create and strengthen a collaborative network between
art-institutions and academia in the South Baltic region. Of great importance in trying to reach these set
goals are functional and efficient ways of of working together, of jointly developing all sub-projects that
takes place within the framework of Art Line. A structural procedure for joint development of the projects
within Art Line has been agreed upon. It follows as summarized below:

- Each partner has been and will be in charge of developing the concept
for the workshops, seminars and projects that they´re arranging.
This concept has been and will get sent to project leader Torun Ekstrand and all the other
participating partners, who in their turn can suggest suitable artists for the project.

- The partners will in the near future have a contact-base for this internal discussion on the Art Line website,
via the Art Line community.

- The final choice of artist will be, and has been, made by the partner who organizes the project.

- The Lead Partner, Blekinge County Museum, is the main responsible for reports about choices and
development to EU.

- The decisions and results will be visible on the public parts of the Art Line website.

- Artists will be connected to the project as external experts.

- Contracts – including fees, travel and accommodation – will get made for each participating artist.

- The Art Line website will host the suggestions on an internal page and be used as a “contact-bank”.

Project Management meetings

Art Line consists of ten partners and four associated partners. Blekinge County Museum is the
Lead Partner. In the project´s management group (Project Management Group or PMG) sits Project
leader Torun Ekstrand, Financial manager Annika Thelin and Information officer Aje Björkman.
They´ll oversee the entire project. To ascertain that the collaborative effort of the project is realized
and that it runs smoothly, a Project Management Core Group has been put together.
Apart from Ekstrand, Thelin and Björkman this group consists of Agnieszka Wolodzko from
Laznia CCA as well as an expert on project development and management by the name of Kristina
Koebe and lastly curator Martin Schibli from Kalmar Konstmuseum. In the early parts of 2011
they had their first meeting, via a video-conference on Skype. The second meeting was held at
Kunsthalle Rostock in Germany, on the 6th of April, at which meeting matters regarding the project -
procurement of artists, development of the Digital Art Platform, contractual, financial issues and
information issues – was discussed in depth.

More meetings are planned to take place in the near future, though no specific dates have yet been set.

ART LINE, AN INTERNATIONAL ART-PROJECT IN REAL AND DIGITAL SPACE