Art Line

Art in a public space – summary of day 2

lonnbom — Sun, 19 May 2013 08:47:06 +0000

The roundtable discussion on the 18th of May.

Day two of the conference Art in a public space – festival or not was just as full of impressions as the first. There was a enlighting mixture of concrete examples of art projects and more in depth analysis.
The speakers were Julia Draganović, Julita Wójcik, Agnieszka Wołodźko, Torun Ekstrand and Bettina Pelz. As day one there was a roundtable discussion as a conclusion. The arranging part got well deserved praise as did the interpreters and the technical staff at the Baltic Cultural Center in Gdansk, where the conference was held.

See pictures from the conference day 2 here:

Morning day 2
Afternoon day 2

(high definition pictures are avaliable, just get in contact with the Art Line information officer, Ingemar Lönnbom)

Exclusive interview with Michaela Crimmin from the Royal College of Art in London. She shares her thoughts on the conference and how to continue. Don’t miss!

Art in a public space – summary of day 1

lonnbom — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:26:59 +0000

The first day of Art Line conference Art in a public space – festival or not? presented five devoted and interesting speakers. Martin Schibli, Dominik Lejman, Michał Bieniek, Kuba Szreder and Michaela Crimmin, from different countries with a variety of thoughts on the concept of art and – not in the least – on the concept of public space!

The day ended with a Roundtable Discussion with all five participants.

Sound has been recorded from the speeches and will be published at a later time. As of now we have pictures – and an exclusive eight minute interview with artist Dominik Lejman, who among other things say that artists should be just as respected for their professionals skills as, say, a doctor or a lawyer.

Listen to the interview with Dominik Lejman!

Conference about art in the public space, May 17-18

lonnbom — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:29:20 +0000

There is more and more of them: art projects that appear in the public space, engaging – or in some cases annoying – a broad and sometimes unprepared audience. It is time to reflect on this. The conference on art in the public space and digital media forms is held May 17-18, 2013 at the Baltic Sea Cultural Centre, Gdansk.

One thing that has recently stirred up the discourse in the Tri-City (Gdynia-Sopot-Gdansk) area is the growing number of festival-like projects with a more or less populist profile appearing in the urban space. The festivals vary in form and purpose but what they all share is the common air of an ephemeral event.

Often dubbed interventions in the public space, their aim is to familiarise the average viewer with art.

The conference will penetrate questions like: What about the responsibility to local communities involuntarily exposed to and involved in such activities? What strategies, if any, could be employed to initiate cooperation with all those locals who experience thousands of strangers flooding their streets in a quest for artistic projects? And last but not least – what is the public space as such, since it no longer embraces merely the urban space?

The invited curators and artists will share their experience with projects in the public space.

However, it is the inhabitants invited by the organisers who will remain at the centre of the discussion, both those accepting and rejecting such projects.

Art in the public space – festival or not ?

A conference on art in the public domain and digital media will be a part of the international Art Line project.

17 – 18 May, 2013

Venue: the Baltic Sea Culture Centre, Korzenna Str. 33/35, Gdansk

The project is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

You can join the event on Facebook

More information:

Ingemar Lönnbom, information officer at Art Line:

ingemar.lonnbom@artline-southbaltic.eu

cell phone +46 708 310392

Within Sweden: 0708 310392

Links to more information:

Read what the speakers reveal on beforehand!

Information in Polish.

Newsletter 12

lonnbom — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:25:59 +0000

Read our newsletter here!

Piotr Wyrzykowski: Water Memory, one of the winners of the contest Hydro Active City.

Mid May: Conference in Gdansk – what about festival-like art events?
Late May: Digital art – #MIXITUP festival in Karlskrona
May/June: Winners of contest Hydro Active City will present their work. Gdansk.

Art Line present when culture became a priority area

lonnbom — Wed, 01 May 2013 22:00:20 +0000

Art Line participated at the Kick-off for culture as a priority area, PA, in Berlin. The Swedish Cultural Attaché in Berlin, Ms Marika Lagercrantz , showed great interest in the Art Line project, which was one of the longest running culture projects that were present.

There is now a Priority Area Culture in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR). The official Kick-Off for this new area took place on April 18 in the Representation of Land Schleswig-Holstein in Berlin.

At a separate meeting for the Flagship project leaders in the presence of the appointed co-coordinators for PA Culture, Art Line’s project leader Ms Torun Ekstrand gave a short orientation about the recently appointed flagship project. Other leaders for the Flagship-to-be projects were also there, presenting ideas for future collaboration.

Listen to soundbites!

The Kick-off event gave numerous opportunities to meet representatives of projects, officials and politics from the countries around the Baltic. Art Line took the opportunity to collect live interviews with some of the participants, e.g Marika Lagercrantz:

https://soundcloud.com/art-line/marika-lagercrantz-2013-04-18

The moderator for one of the discussions, professor dr. Gernot Wolfram (Publicist, Member of European Commission’s Team Europe as cultural expert) also made a statement for the Art Line website. Listen to the interview with him here:

https://soundcloud.com/art-line/professor-dr-gernot-wolfram

Art Line also spoke with Ragnar Siil, undersecretary for fine arts at the Estonian ministry of culture. He has some interesting views of how the people from the culture sector in society can convince the economic people it is wise to support culture:

https://soundcloud.com/art-line/ragnar-siil-at-the-kick-off-in.

Comment from the project leader

- I am very pleased that we from Art Line got the opportunity to inform about our Flagship project. We also got a confirmation that the PA Culture co-coordinators has good knowledge about us and will be our “ambassadors” in the future, says Torun Ekstrand, project leader at Art Line as she is summing up the Berlin meeting.

Art Line – project prolonged until 2014!

lonnbom — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:00:51 +0000

Art Line continues until March 31 next year. The Steering Committee of the Programme South Baltic Cross Border Co-operation has approved an extension.

The decision was based on conclusions from the project assessment, such as:

“The project enhances the dissemination of the already achieved results, and improves their durability. It is valuable contribution to the South Baltic area in the context of enriching the cross-border cultural arena. The proposed activities, in majority, are innovative, have logic of intervention, and positively impact the situation of the target group.

The Art Line project is valuable for the Programme area and symbolizes good practice example in terms of management, partnership and progress of implementation. The project is represented by the small institutions with a large dedication to the development of the culture/art field in the Programme regions. Within the project lifetime high ambition level and commitment are observed by the JTS, resulted in the appointment to the Flagship project for the EUSBSR. Following the assessment criteria the proposed extension should be considered as deserved prolongation, chance to reinforce impact of activities and networks development for durability in the future.”

Newsletter 11

lonnbom — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:42:03 +0000

Newsletter 11

Some of the artists participating in “Telling the Baltic” gathered in Kaliningrad.

Read our newsletter here!

Art Line extended!
Listen to what VIP:s say about Art Line (sound bites).
Read about the opening for Telling the Baltic in Kaliningrad.

Programme and participants in the Art Line conference May 17-18

lonnbom — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:55:38 +0000

Art Line Gdansk 2013 | Conference
Art in the Public Space – Festival or Not?

Friday, 17th May 2013
9:45 – 10:00
registration
Contexts, spaces and commissioning
10:00 – 10:50 Martin Schibli,
What is it with Public Art that Makes it so Hard to Love it?
10:50 – 11:40 Dominik Lejman,
The Right to Space
11:40 – 12:30 Michał Bieniek,
Curator-Orderer: from the Context and Medium to a Curatorial and
Organisational ‘Failure’
12:30 – 13:30 LUNCH BREAK
Economy, funding and institutions
13:30 – 14:20 Kuba Szreder,
The political Economy of Public Art Projects
14:20 – 15:10 Michaela Crimmin,
Art for All? Observation, Participation, Collaboration and
Opposition in Contemporary Art Practice
15:10 – 16:00
Roundtable Discussion
Saturday, 18th May 2013
9:45 – 10:00
registration
Dialogue, conflict, site-specificity and the role of an artist
10:00 – 10:50 Julia Draganović,
Note on Time Based Public Art
10:50 – 11:40 Julita Wójcik
,
Daily Life of a Festival
11:40 – 12:30 Agnieszka Wołodźko,
Discuss, not Decorate!
12:30 – 13:30 LUNCH BREAK
Festival, regionalisation and the public
13:30 – 14:00 Torun Ekstrand,
What and where is Art in the Public Domain?
14:00 – 14:50 Bettina Pelz,
Visual Seismographs
14:50 – 16:00
Roundtable Discussion

pdf:s for downloading and printing:

ART LINE conference 17-18.05.2013 – schedule

ART LINE- conference 17-18.05.2013 – list of participants

Art in the public domain – festival or not ART LINE conference 17-18.05.2013

Art Line Gdansk 2013 | Conference
Art in the Public Space – Festival or Not?

Michał Bieniek, studied at the Faculty of Painting and Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in
Wrocław; head of the Managing Board of the Foundation for Contemporary Art ART TRANSPARENT,
creator and general curator of the SURVIVAL Art Review; originator and coordinator of the
contemporary art gallery Mieszkanie Gepperta (Geppert’s Apartment). Twice, in 2006 and 2010, he
was granted scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and in 2004 was awarded
the Marshal of Lower Silesia Prize. In 2009 and 2010, nominated for the ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ WARTO
Award, which he received in 2010. Since 2010 he has been a Research Student by Project at the
Curating Contemporary Art Department of the Royal College of Art in London. In 2011, he was granted
‘Młoda Polska’ scholarship.
Michaela Crimmin, curator, co-founder and director of Culture+Conflict. Her ongoing research
explores the relationship between the arts and societal issues, particularly artists’ perspectives on
environmental and other contemporary challenges, and artists’ engagement with public space. She is
a course tutor on the Curating Contemporary Art masters programme at the Royal College of Art,
programming two courses in 2013: ‘Art in the Public Domain’ and ‘Art and Globalisation’.
Her current work with Culture+Conflict aims to build support and recognition for arts and cultural
activity specifically in conflict and post-conflict situations. She has also recently been working with the
artist Joanna Rajkowska on a commission for the UK city of Peterborough as part of a programme
exploring how ‘citizen power’ can shape civic and democratic renewal.
She was previously Head of Arts at the RSA (1997-2010), a role that included commissioning the first
phase of the Fourth Plinth series in London’s Trafalgar Square, directing the Art for Architecture award
scheme, and latterly initiating and directing the Arts & Ecology Centre on behalf of the RSA and Arts
Council England. This five-year programme supported, promoted and debated artists’ responses to
current environmental challenges through a range of activities including artist commissions, a book,
and a series of events and international residencies. Prior to this she worked with artists in the public
sphere for over fifteen years of commissioning art with the pioneering public art agency, The Public Art
Development Trust. She is a member of the Higher Education Academy and lectures frequently
nationally and internationally.
Julia Draganović, a curator for contemporary art whose interest is focused on new artistic strategies
including art in public spaces, socially engaged practices and new media. She has curated shows in
Germany, Italy, Spain, the USA and Taiwan, including the curatorial projects of Bologna Art First 2010
- 2012 and at Art Miami since 2009. Draganović is a member of the committees of the Outdoor Gallery
in Gdansk (Poland), a board member of No Longer Empty, New York and a member of the Scientific
Committee of Mudam, Luxembourg. As founding member of the curatorial collective and platform for
contemporary art LaRete Art Projects, she is in charge of the International Award for Participatory Art
launched by the Legislative Assembly of the Italian Region Emilia-Romagna.
Institutional positions covered by Julia Draganović include Artistic Director of the Chelsea Art Museum
New York (2005-2006) and of PAN Palazzo delle Arti Napoli (2007-2009).
Torun Ekstrand, project leader of Art Line which just received a Flagship status from the European
Commission. It is now part of the Action Plan for the Baltic Sea Strategy, the first Macro-regional
strategy in Europe. Culture is a part of the plan for development of the regions and Art Line is an
example of a South Baltic art cooperation network. Torun Ekstrand is a freelance since 2002, working
as curator and as project leader for public art projects in Artland. In 2011 she was awarded the
Honorary Award the Knight’s Cross of Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for promoting Polish art
in Scandinavia for many years. Torun Ekstrand has earlier worked at Art halls, museums and as
program manager of Crossmedia at the Blekinge Institute of Technology.
Dominik Lejman, visual artist, graduate of the State Higher School of Visual Arts in Gdańsk, Faculty
of Painting and Graphic Arts; and the Royal College of Art in London with the title of Master of Arts.
Lives and works in Poznań and Berlin. Awarded numerous Polish and international awards, including
the ‘Polityka’ Passport Award in 2001 for ‘art that innovatively combines traditional painting with
contemporary media technology’. Deals with painting, which he merges with video projections; carries
out video-frescoes and works in the form of large-scale photo-wallpapers. Besides individual and
group exhibitions, he also contributes with many works presented in public space at, including Burn
Festival, Cracow, (2012);
It hurts, I can’t feel anything, Grand Theatre – National Opera, Warsaw
(2011); 60sec. Cathedral, SkyWay Festival Toruń and Valgus Festival, Tallinn (2011); Lumiere,
Durham (2011); Light Move Festival, Łódź (2011); Double Layer. Fossils and Gardens, European
Parliament, Brussels (2011); Second City, video frescoes Śródka, (cooperation: Galeria Starter)
Poznań (2010); Panoptical Machines, SkyWay Festival, Toruń, (2010).
Bettina Pelz, since 2000 the curatorial work of Bettina Pelz has been dedicated to interdisciplinary
projects in urban space, postindustrial environments and world cultural heritage sites. Internationally
she has been involved in projects in the arts in Australia, China, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany,
Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Singapore, South-Africa and Switzerland, among others, since
2000 with focus on light as material and media in the arts. She is the founding curator of the awarded
festival formats “Lichtrouten” (Germany, since 2002), “Glow” (Netherlands, 2006 to 2009], “Narracje”
(Poland, 2009 to 2011) and “Lichtstroeme” (Germany, since 2011).
Martin Schibli, curator, critic and lecturer based in Sweden. Between 2006 and 2102, as a curator
and director of exhibitions, he transformed the Kalmar konstmuseum into one of the top institutions in
Sweden. During the last decade he curated about 80 exhibitions in eleven countries, including
Sweden, Russia, Germany, Lithuania and Poland, organised at museums, art galleries and biennials.
Last year Kalmar konstmuseum was also an official partner to the Berlin Biennale. His exhibitions
include individual displays of works by Artur Żmijewski, Marina Naprushkina and Georg Baselitz. He is
one of the main curators for the upcoming Shiryaevo Biennale in Russia, with other exhibition projects
planned in Russia, China and Chile. In Sweden he is also known for the book How to become a
contemporary artist in three days, a survival guide to the art world. Besides curating, he also lectures
regularly at universities and art schools.
Kuba Szreder, a graduate of the Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University (Cracow). Curator of
the Free / Slow University of Warsaw. As part of his curatorial practice he organises public art and
research projects, convenes seminars and conferences, writes articles and edits publications. His
interdisciplinary projects actively engage in public the sphere, combine artistic practices with other
formats of cultural production, critical reflection upon the art world and thorough examination of
society. In the autumn of 2009 he started his PhD research at Loughborough University School of the
Arts, where he scrutinises the apparatus of project making and its relation to the independent
curatorial practice.
Agnieszka Wołodźko, studied at the Faculty of Painting and Graphic Arts of the State Higher School
of Visual Arts in Gdańsk between 1980-1986. Currently, her PhD Thesis is in preparation on
participation art in Scandinavia between 1990 and 2010 at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Adam
Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Works as an artist (dealing with painting, photography, installations,
sound, actions, artistic workshops for various social groups, and formulating ideas), curator and author
of texts on art, architecture and contemporary urban design, as well as topical problems faced by
modern cities. Participant in a plethora of exhibitions and artistic projects in Poland and abroad. Held
residencies in New York, Reykjavik, Helsinki, Graz, Bremen, Japan and Berlin. Published the
photographic album Japan 2002-2003. Photographic Diary (Ryszard Ziarkiewicz Publishing, 2005).
Since 2000, she has worked as an exhibition curator at the Centre for Contemporary Art Łaźnia in
Gdańsk.
Julita Wójcik, sculptor and initiator of artistic actions. Gained renown as a chronicler of provincial
domestic aesthetics. Addressing daily activities, her works blur the borders between reality and art.
Her vivid actions achieve effects through a minimum of involved means, such as peeling potatoes in a
gallery or reading Strzemiński’s Theory of Vision to grazing cows in the fields (Unistic Landscape,
2007), while her sculptures representing pre-fab housing appear as products of the allegedly feminine
activity of crocheting. Crocheting, sweeping the floor, gardening, building ponds in public spaces and
bird feeders, flowing kites – all this does not evoke immediate associations with art, but rather with the
experience of the everyday, as if from an already somewhat bygone era. Simple activities only gain
proper rank in their artistic context, which nobilitates them on the one hand, while deprives art of its
elitism on the other. Obfuscating the difference between the everyday and the artistic, Wójcik paints a
humoristic portrait of the human condition.
Graduate of the Faculty of Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk in 1997. In 2012, shw was
awarded the “Polityka” Passport Award and Storm of the Year Award. Multiple scholarship holder of
the Ministry of Culture in 2007, 2005, 2003, 2001, and in 1995/6. Scholarship of the Foundation for
Culture in 2001. Resident at, among other places, Art in General in New York in 2006, the Visegrad
Fund 2010. Works in public collections: Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Museum of Art in
Łódź, National Museum in Warsaw, Arsenał Gallery in Białystok, Society for the Encouragement of
Contemporary Art in Szczecin, HorseCross in Perth, Scotland, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Moderator:
Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz, (born in 1987 in Wrocław), art historian and curator. Studied art history at
London’s Courtauld Institute of Art, where she graduated from the MA seminar run by Prof Sarah
Wilson and Prof Boris Groys with her thesis devoted to the early days of Polish mail-art and strategies
of breaking isolation in the face of a specific social-political realm. PhD student at the Courtauld
Institute of Art, where she explores alternative artistic exchange networks in Eastern Europe and
South America. Writes on contemporary art and neo-avantgarde movements in authoritarian states in
the context of the idea of solidarity, cooperation and dialogue. Editor of the catalogue Exhibitionism,
co-curator of the international show EastWingIX, and the project Active Poetry devoted to Polish art in
public space. Miśniakiewicz has collaborated with, among others, the White Cube Gallery in London,
Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Santa Cruz in Bolivia, Contemporary Muzeum in Wrocław, and
Biennale de Santa Cruz dela Sierra.

Telling the Baltic has opened in Kaliningrad

lonnbom — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:14:51 +0000

“Telling the Baltic” has opened in Kaliningrad

The International Art Exhibition “Telling the Baltic” is now officially opened in Kaliningrad. Telling the Baltic is a unique art project that links the countries around the Baltic Sea together. As from April 19 this is now the fourth time it opens, but in a entirely new context at the BB NCCA Kaliningrad.

The exhibition is based on different personal stories from people who live around the Baltic sea travels to it and those who works on the Baltic Sea itself. The stories has then inspired artists from the participating countries to create contemporary art works.

What is shown in Kaliningrad is in big parts the same art that was previously shown in Karlskrona, Gdansk and Rostock, but here it has been placed in an existing museum, The Museum of the World Ocean, and the historic fort Kronprinz Tower with its contemporary art center. The works are shown in a new context such as the museum ship Vityaz or with museum exhibits, in departments like shipbuilding and fishing.

The exhibition reflects the common historical roots of the people around the Baltic Sea in contemporary art. Fishermen, lighthouse keepers, mechanics, sailors and islanders, dock workers, rescue workers and scientists, they have all contributed to the collection of stories that are the basis for the exhibition. A part of the project was the collecting of stories whose contents were raw material for further work and inspired artists in several workshops in Sweden and Lithuania.

Nearly 30 project participants from Lithuania, Russia (Kaliningrad), Sweden, Germany and Poland have been working with photography, video and sound, installations and objects. Everything is held together by a common factor – The Baltic Sea. The exhibition was inaugurated at Blekinge museum in the summer of 2012, went on to CCA Laznia in Gdansk and by March 2013 the Kunsthalle Rostock.

Artists: Poland: Patrycja Orzechowska, Iwona Zając, Anna Steller, Łukasz Szałankiewicz, Anna Zaradny, Agnieszka Wolodzko, Marek Zygmunt. Sweden: Astrid Göransson Anna Brag Johan Thurfjell Denmark: Henrik Lund Jørgensen Russia: Anton Zabrodin, Oleg Blyablyas, Katerina Cherevko, Konstantin Traschenkov, Aleksandr Ljubin, Evgeny Umansky, Aleksey Tchebykin, Danil Akimov, Aleksey Chebykin, Vasiliev Kolesnik, Alexander Lubin, Alex Trotsak Vadim Chaly, Vadim Chaly Germany: Katrin Roeber, Paetrick Schmidt, Michael Soltau Lithuania: Laura Stasiulyte, Irma Stanaityte, Jurgita Remeikyte, Dainius Dapkevicius, Gintaras Makarevicius

Telling the Baltic has been implemented as part of the art project Art Line, which is partly financed by the EU’s South Baltic Cross-Border Programme. Art Line was recently appointed a flagship project in the EU by the European Commission and is included as a part of a part of the action plan for the Baltic Sea Strategy (EUSBSR). This summer, the exhibition Telling the Baltic will travel on Stena Line ferries between Karlskrona and Gdynia.

Participants Telling the Baltic are: Nida Art Colony & Arts Academy (Vilnius, Nida / Lithuania), Baltic Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (Kaliningrad NCCA) (Kaliningrad / Russia), NGO Art Mission, Museum of Contemporary Art Laznia (Gdansk / Poland), Kunsthalle (Rostock / Germany) and Blekinge Museum and Blekinge Institute of Technology (Blekinge / Sweden).

The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam / Netherlands), EU (European Development Fund).
Partner: Museum of the World Ocean (Kaliningrad / Russia)
The countries participating in the project: Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Kaliningrad / Russia, Sweden.
The project website: http://ttb.artline-southbaltic.eu/
Curators and initiator of the project: Karlskrona / Sweden – Torun Ekstrand, Gdansk / Poland – Agnieszka Wolodzko
Curators: Kaliningrad / Russia – Julia Bardoun, Elena Tsvetaeva, coordinator Zinaida Shershun, Nida / Lithuania – Race Antanaviciute, Rostock / Germany – Ulrich Ptak.
More information about the exhibition Telling the Baltic:

http://ttb.artline-southbaltic.eu/

http://artline-southbaltic.eu/telling-the-baltic/

Link to page with short information in Russian.
Torun Ekstrand, Project: 0709 30 49 71
e-mail: torun.ekstrand @ Artline-southbaltic.eu

Ingemar Lönnbom, Information: 0708 31 03 92
e-mail: ingemar.lonnbom @ Artline-southbaltic.eu

Newsletter 10

lonnbom — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:15:42 +0000

Art Line – Flagship project in the EU!
Three projects wins Hydro Active City
Telling the Baltic opens in Kaliningrad

Read our newsletter no 10 here!

Art Line

Art in a public space – summary of day 2

Art in a public space – summary of day 1

Conference about art in the public space, May 17-18

Newsletter 12

Art Line present when culture became a priority area

Art Line – project prolonged until 2014!

Newsletter 11

Programme and participants in the Art Line conference May 17-18

Art Line Gdansk 2013 | Conference Art in the Public Space – Festival or Not?

Art Line Gdansk 2013 | Conference Art in the Public Space – Festival or Not?

Telling the Baltic has opened in Kaliningrad

Newsletter 10

Art Line Gdansk 2013 | Conference
Art in the Public Space – Festival or Not?

Art Line Gdansk 2013 | Conference
Art in the Public Space – Festival or Not?