New location for teaching and research into moving image, photography, performance and sound art
September 10, 2019, 5pm
Mindepartementet opens on September 10 with a day-long festival of performance, film and installations on the central island of Skeppsholmen in Stockholm, introducing the Royal Institute of Art’s new location for teaching and research into moving image, photography, performance and sound art.
Artistic risk-taking, experimentation and innovation are key concepts at the heart of a two year long extensive development project across the Royal Institute of Art, alongside the implementation of a more collaborative model, strengthening the influence of students and staff throughout the school’s organisation. The school’s new vision furthermore includes new programmes in public art and sound art, a new professorship in performance, as well as high-profile international artists joining as guest teachers.
Opening up Mindepartementet’s extensive creative working environment with cutting edge equipment is an important step towards a new educational model being implemented across the prestigious art school under the leadership of Vice-Chancellor Sara Arrhenius, joining up workshop-based and theoretical approaches under one roof.
“When I initiated the new site, creating an opportunity for different artistic methods and techniques to work side by side was an important starting point. Many of our researchers and students move across a broad artistic field and work with moving images as well as performance and sound. That is why we wanted to gather them in a place where they can meet,” says Sara Arrhenius.
Throwing the doors open at 5pm on September 10, Mindepartementet’s public opening will take the form of a festival, running until midnight, and encompassing contributions by the institute’s teachers and students alike, ranging from what is heard and seen, to what is felt and even eaten.
“We want the evening to reflect the creativity and interesting artistic conversations and articulations that are currently going on at the school among students and teachers,” says Petra Bauer, Professor of Fine Art and Head of Mindepartementet. “However, we do not only want Mindepartementet to reflect on what is happening right now, but for it to become a place where we can hold discussions on the expression and role of contemporary art in the future.”
Mindepartementet comprises of about 500 square meters hosting high-end video editing tools, a digital darkroom, a photo studio, as well as meeting places and project and seminar rooms. The department also confronts a traditional approach, where students are “supervised” by professors, by introducing a much more collaborative and joint model of working together, with artistic expressions to be discussed and experimented through seminars, film screenings, workshops and exhibitions. Creating an environment characterised by artistic openness and curiosity, the Royal Institute of Art stimulates new artistic expressions and forms of teaching in the arts and based on the freedom of education.
Participating artists
Emanuel Almborg, Åsa Andersson Broms, Petra Bauer, Mikael Beckman-Thoor, David Blomqvist Jönsson, Robert Brečević, Karolina Brobäck, Jacob Broms Engblom, Carl Johan Erikson, Simon Ferner, Benjamin Gerdes, Vladyslav Kamenskyy, Oscar Lara, Björn Larsson, Izabel Lind Färnstrand, Rossana Mercado-Rojas, Linnéa Ndangoya Palmcrantz, Afrang Nordlöf Malekian, Alessandro Petti/DAAR, Cristian Quinteros Soto, Erika Råberg, Natália Rebelo, Sonia Sagan, Vanja Sandell, Lina Selander, Anneli Ström Villaseca, Eugene Sundelius von Rosen, tm, Victoria Verseau, Erik Viklund, Sophie Vuković, James Webb and Ming Wong.
