Call for applications: CuratorLab 2018/19

CuratorLab is a curatorial course for professionals in Arts, Crafts, Design & Architecture in collaboration with Tensta Konsthall in Stockholm. CuratorLab doesn’t have a fixed curriculum—every year it reinvents itself anew around a leading topic, followed by studio visits, seminars, lectures, and trips, co-organized together with the participants. The course has a standing collaboration with Tensta Konsthall contributing to its public program and a series of exhibitions organized within the framework of The Eros Effect Art, Solidarity Movements and the Struggle for Social Justice. CuratorLab is interested in working with and against the ideas of curating and the curatorial, but rather than solely exploring the history of the genre, the ambition is to work on pertinent issues of our time while not taking things for granted. In the recent years we have worked on re-staging the Operaist Trial with the artist Rossella Biscotti, or worked on the topic of love and revolution drawing on the legacy of Alexandra Kollontai in preparation of Dora García’s exhibition. CuratorLab is open to everybody with experience and interest in exploring what a curatorial practice can mean today. We welcome a group of participants with a grounded interest and a sense of commitment in order to share a learning experience together.

For the academic year 2018/19, we invite you to work together with curator Maria Lind and Tensta Konsthall on rethinking how to work curatorially with a public art collection, responding to notions of the public, publicness, the commons, the counter-public, the private, the shared and the owned. Every participant will be invited to engage in the conceptual and hands-on research around the history, present and the future of the third biggest collection in Sweden, that of Malmö Konstmuseum run by director Cecilia Widenheim. Together, we will outline the research topics and reading groups, ask what is the role of the curator in actualizing and problematizing the collections and we will contribute with the public program around the resulting exhibition at Tensta kontshall in spring 2019. Each participant is invited to conceptualize a project in relation to the topic and common research and will be granted a production budget of 15,000 SEK, access to all the facilities of Konstfack, Tensta Konsthall and Malmö Konstmuseum.

We will meet four times per year for two-week sessions (early September, early November, February and May). You do not need to be based in Stockholm, however your attendance during all the sessions is necessary.

Join us to be part of a moment of defining and challenge the field of curating!

Program director: Joanna Warsza 

Guest lecturers: Michele Masucci, Maria Lind as well as many others. 

Language of instruction: English

Entry requirements 
Bachelor’s degree of 180 credits, or higher, in fine arts, art history, critical studies, curatorial studies, architecture, crafts and design, and/or equivalent work experience in independent curatorial practices or within institutions for at least three years. 

How to apply to CuratorLab

Apply at universityadmissions.se (antagning.se for Swedish speaking applicants)
When applying to Konstfack you submit an online application to the Swedish central application website www.universityadmissions.se (antagning.se for Swedish speaking applicants), and send qualifications to support the entry requirements to universityadmissions.se (antagning.se for Swedish speaking applicants).

Upload files to konstfack.se
You will also need to upload files electronically via Konstfack’s website. These files will be used in the selection between eligible applicants.

Submit three (3) PDF files to konstfack.se:
–One page of written bio, including your interests in CuratorLab (1 page as 1 PDF file)
–Outline of the lines of project proposal. Please describe the area of a possible interest or a project around the common topic (1 page as 1 PDF file)
–Documentation of relevant working experience (max 3 pages as 1 PDF file)

More information

If you have questions about how to apply, please contact:
Student Office, studentkansli [​at​] konstfack.se / T +46 8 450 41 77

If you have questions about the course, please contact:
Helena Höök, helena.hook [​at​] konstfack.se, T +46 8 450 41 90