My first meeting with Anna – my mentor on the Konsten att delta (the Art of Participation) programme – went well. We chatted over tea and cake at the studio. The programme matches native Swedish artists with non-native artists now living and working in Sweden, and is the initiative of the national artists’ association. It has only recently been rolled out nationally after a few years of operating in a couple of counties and Stockholm. Although Anna and I appear to have little in common in terms of our actual practices we got along well and spoke mainly about ways of being an artist and how best to make it sustainable – we both quickly established that neither of us earns our living directly from our studio practices!
Anna was easy to speak with and it was good to hear a little about the art-scene in Uppsala – which galleries are taken seriously and (usually) lead to a show being reviewed, which associations it can be good to join, and the opportunities offered by both Uppsala city and Uppsala county – though as I live in Enköping I may not qualify for any ’city based’ schemes or projects. It would be good for me to broaden my horizons and make connections with other artists, getting to know Anna makes this seem much more achievable – popping over to Uppsala for an opening or talk is hardly arduous but certainly nicer if you know someone to say hello to. I hope that she too gets something out of the programme, I will think about what this could be.
Far from least it was good for me to discuss these things in Swedish. It reminded me that it is time to focus on improving my art-Swedish. With the evenings already becoming noticeably darker earlier I should dedicate one a week to actually, and actively, studying Swedish. I have one book that I barely looked at while studying the language at adult education, it should help me both improve and advance my written and oral skills. I should also pay closer attention to the Swedish press-releases that I receive from galleries.
Speaking of press-releases, I have just written one announcing Glitter Ball’s launch and inaugural show. It is in English which makes sense as I am also sending it outside of Sweden. In the future I would like to have a Swedish and an English version. I want to write the Swedish one and have someone proofread it rather than have someone translate my English text.
Tomorrow I meet with the arts correspondent for the local paper in the morning to talk about Glitter Ball, and after lunch I have a meeting in Uppsala about the county’s mobile gallery that I have been invited to exhibit in. I really wish that there were more hours in the day and days in the week.
I will play catch-up later, now I need to say that I have just done -something scarily exciting – I have invited an artist to do the first show at the gallery/project space that I am going to be running!
On Saturday 1 September Fredrik Nielsen – ”poster boy of cool rebellion, rocking an attitude that makes Swedish contemporary glass beat with a pulse”* – will open at Glitter Ball! Nothing like setting oneself a challenge!
So over the coming five weeks I will create a showing space out of a rather shabby corridor in our new studio building, simultaneously organising and promoting the show for Fredrik – a well known and respected artist whom I was lucky enough to meet on my Project Year at the Royal College here (2014). I am truly delighted that he accepted – it’s going to be great!
The idea of having my own ’artist-run space’ has been floating about for a while now – I remember speaking with Fredrik about it at Supermarket art fair in early 2017. At that time I wondered about opening up my home, well living room, as a showroom. I had been inspired by meeting the wonderful and inspiring Jasmin Glaab who runs kunsthallekleinbasel. However I realised that Enköping is not Basel, nor does Sweden have a culture of inviting strangers into one’s home- so potential for ’audience development’ was going to be struck two immediate and severe blows, let alone the potential risk of being seen to run a business illegally from a lease-hold residence (a big no-no in Sweden). The space at the studio is a far better option.
Not only is it in the town centre, it is less than two minutes away from Enköpings public gallery which has a very good reputation and attracts people from neighboring towns and cities as well as locals and even international visitors. Furthermore my studio is right next door (it is literally the other side of doors at the end of the space) so I can easily ’open by appointment’.
I am looking forward to getting in touch with many of the artists who have invited me to show with them, and finally being able to offer them a modest opportunity to do the same. Whilst fitting out and painting, and organising and promoting, I also need to be arranging a programme for both this autumn and spring 2019!
It’s very exciting!
* from Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm who represent Fredrik.
As seems to be the way busy days at the fair, dinner with the friend I was staying with, arriving back in Enköping late last Sunday evening and an intense week with both work and the new studio put pay to time for writing. [I am very conscious that I wrote the draft of this post a couple of weeks ago and it is only now that I am getting around to publishing it.]
This year’s fair seemed a lot less hectic than previous years – or perhaps I am (finally) relaxing in to it. I certainly feel more open to seeing what is going on rather than having an agenda or feeling that I need to be at every talk, performance, and event. The smaller meetings that are moderated and have between six and eight participants (a mix of exhibitors and professional networkers) are a great way to get to know more about other artists’ projects. Each meeting has a theme or staring point, the ones I attended looked collaborations and ‘curator as conceptual artist’, from which departures are made in lively discussions that weave in and out differing approaches, practices and understandings. The relative intimacy of these meetings encourages openness in talking about aspirations as well as frustrations and failures but nearly always with a good dose of humour and a shared sense of solidarity. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be able to sit down and chat with artists from Poland, Hungary, Spain, Finland, the Netherlands and other areas in Sweden. Comparing our experiences and getting some idea of the different cultural and political climates that we live and work in gave me a great deal to think about.
The two public ‘Art Shots’ events re-worked the pecha-kucha format and gave each presenter ten minutes to talk to ten images. Again it was impressive and inspiring to see how much people achieve, and to hear about hugely differing means of support. The activities of 14+ Artists (Tanzania), Drunk and Storm (Madrid), Photoport (Slovakia), Galerie SAW Gallery (Canada), Alma Martha/Kalshnikovv Gallery (South Africa) and Verkligheten (Sweden) well reflected the diversity of the artist-led scene around the world with tales of massive state investment to stories of passionate commitment that far exceeded meagre material resources.
The idea of running a gallery/showroom in my apartment has been on my mind since last year’s fair. It’s a far from ideal place to do something like that and I am not sure that I am the kind of person who is comfortable opening my home to strangers on a regular basis. Whilst listening to how other artists are doing things it suddenly struck me that the corridor immediately outside of our new studio could be an interesting space for showing art. Obviously any artist showing there would have to take the space for what it is – a corridor(!) – but it would enable me to invite artists to Enköping and even organise projects and events from a physical space! Tired, inspired and a little ‘over stimulated’ I returned to Enköping and asked Klas what he thought about the idea of me renting the corridor and running it as a ‘contemporary art venue’. He liked the idea. So now I have somewhere to develop ‘things’ with other artists!
I surprised myself with my participation in a somewhat heated debated following a question about funding dircted towards the young curator/representative of a recently formed artists’ collective in Budapest. During the preceding panel discussion the curator mentioned that she had just made an application for public funding, then in response to another question from the audience about tactics for engaging with a broad public she said that that was not something that the collective were particularly interested in. This seemingly infuriated another person in the audience who made her feelings quite clear in an agressive demand to know how could they ask for public money if they were not going to use it to open up their programme and educate people about contemporary art.
I found myself agreeing with and going even further than the audience member who wondered if it might be appropriate for a young initiative to focus on an already engaged public. Without really thinking about it I heard myself saying that I was tired of artists feeling that they have a duty to educate a dis-interested public and asking why artists rarely treat themselves as an audience. For me it was refreshing and inspiring to hear a young curator claim the right to seek public money for the good of artists.
It is as though we artists place ourselves outside, or beyond, the public. And in some way this attitude that we are always already an elite doing things that would benefit everyone if only we could make them understand us is both patronising and condescending. If we as artists believe that art has value then why do we find it so hard to value ourselves and each other as artists? Why don’t we feel that we have the right to ask for, and deserve, support for what we do on our own terms?
This is not an entirely new thought to me. An artist friend who also works in gallery education and I have, over the years, wondered why we spend so much time and energy trying to make art accessible. It is as though we cannot accept that different activities have different audiences. It must be more than twenty years ago that I first became aware of the phrase ‘new audiences’. In today’s climate it can seem as though the out-reach and accessibility agendas have eclipsed every other ambition – particularly in the artist-led and non-commercial arenas. How have we arrived at a position where is it infuriating to another artist to suggest an arts project should receive public funding for a arts programme for artists and an art-loving audience?
Feeling inspired after a day of meetings and presentations. The artists’ run art-scene is a truly wonderous place full of people who with often very limited resources make incredible and ambitious things happen both locally and internationally.
Land404 is a relatively recently established initiative running residencies and an exhibition programme in rural southern Sweden, and it was fascinating to be in a meeting (themed on ‘Curator as conceptual artist’) with them alongside Jason St-Laurent from Galerie SAW Gallery, Ottawa which has been going for 45 years and is in the midst of a massive expansion funded by the Canadian arts council. Listening to them speak about how they work with artists and audiences opened up the spectrum of possibilities and at the same time illustrated the strengths of having clear ambitions.
I am enjoying ‘representing myself’ as the PNP coordinator puts it and at the same time scouting about with the view of making contacts for what I referred to as the ‘artists’s collective’ that Klas and I are establishing in Enköping. Over the weekend I am going to meet-up with Gideon from Artist Run Alliance and register our Enköping project with their digital network – literally putting us on a virtual (international) map!
It is perhaps part due to the particular context of (modern) Sweden that Swedish artists seem to like/need a structure in which they can operate. The idea of a project or association developing organically seems quite an anathema to them – so I am coming around to idea of making a framework that will allow them easily to engage and particpate in something that (hopefully) will never be as fixed or as static as perhaps they might like! I have in mind a hybrid of an iceberg and a swan – a visible and serene portion above the waterline, a considerably larger and dynamic powerhouse operating unseen in deeper waters.
