Signal was founded in 1998 in Malmo, Sweden, by five artists with a shared aim to contribute to a more elaborate discussion on art and thought, and to compensate for the lack of art spaces dedicated to international art practitioners at an early stage of their careers.

Over the years, Signal’s team has developed into a curatorial collective, comprising both artists and curators, evolving organically into a discursive platform. This group focuses on the production, presentation and diffusion of contemporary art with a central focus on exploring the possibilities of a collaborative curatorial practice and the manifold functions of an art arena. Signal – Center for Contemporary Art, plays an important role as a counter part to the institutional and the commercial art scene in Sweden.

Signal’s program spans a diverse range of activities including exhibitions, lectures, concerts, film screenings, performances, events, symposia, publications and reading groups etc. In order to challenge traditional modes of exhibition display, Signal constantly investigates new ways to communicate and produce art projects criticality. Alongside efforts made to work to curate contextually is the desire to initiate intimate dialogue between the curatorial team and the artists, and endorse an open learning process for all.

Signal presents approximately 6 exhibitions each year.

Most outstanding projects in recent years:

Breaking Point: Kathryn Bigelow’s Life in Art , 9 April–30 May 2010;

A Parallel History–The Independent Art Arenas of SkŒne. A project in three parts:
– An exhibition, 16 October–13 December 2009
– A book launched in September 2009
– A seminar in spring 2011.

Wet and Wild: The Spirit of Sister Corita organized by Julie Ault and Signal in collaboration with WKMP, 23 November 2007–24 February 2008;

TWENTYFOURSEVEN, Patrik Aarnivaara, Goldin+Senneby, KpD kleines postfordistisches Drama ( Brigitta Kuster, Isabell Lorey, Katja Reichard, Marion von Osten), Isabelle Pauwels, Egle Rakauskaite, Johan Svensson, Anna Wessman, 28 September–4 November 2007;

Lisi Raskin, Project Esrange, 4 May–10 June 2007.

An important cornerstone in Signal’s program is the sharing of knowledge. Over the years Signal has organised a series of lectures, Metod (method), through which invited curators, writers, scholars and artists discuss and present their working methods. In order to discuss prevailing values within current cultural policies, part of Signal’s agenda is focused on talks and writings on the current production of art, the working conditions of the artist and the culture producers, and the implications in the prevailing market economy of the kind of exhibition-making that produces immaterial knowledge over easy entertainment.

Metod (method) lectures have included the following participants (among many more): Natalie Melikian, ClŽmentine Deliss, Simon Starling, Jacob Fabricius, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Charles Esche, Gitte Villesen, Lisebeth Bik & Jos van der Pol, Maria Lind and Soren Grammel, Lars Bang Larsen, Barbara Wien, Lise Nelleman, Julie Ault, Johanna Billing, Esther Shalev-Gerz, Rudi Laermans, Matthew Buckingham, Natasa Petresin, Mary Beth Edelson, Hito Steyerl, Valentinas Klimasauskas, An Architektur, Morgan Fisher, Gregory Sholette etc.

Signal’s aim to facilitate a functioning infrastructure led to the creation of an archive of the materials of artists based in Malmo. The Artist Archive at Signal plays an important role as a place for professional encounters by enabling international curators and writers to research and meet artists based in the region.

Surface area/capacity: 80 square meters