CrossSections

Curated by Basak Senova

As a result of an on-going collaboration since 2017, Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design will host an extensive exhibition of CrossSections with 19 participating artists. CrossSections will be the first international exhibition taking place at Konstfack.

Developed and curated by Basak Senova, CrossSections is designed as an interdisciplinary platform for explorations into artistic research and education through dialogue and production. The project employs an open format to reflect upon “process” with the intent to articulate critical reactions to the political, economic, and social disturbances facing us today. Over the course of three years (2017–19), the artists, together with other scholars and cultural workers, have organized various meetings, workshops, exhibitions, performances and book launches in Vienna, Helsinki and Stockholm.

Participating artists include Heba Y. Amin, Nisrine Boukhari, Benji Boyadgian, Yane Calovski, Ramesch Daha, Ricarda Denzer, Nikolaus Gansterer, Inma Herrera, Barbara Holub, Otto Karvonen, Ebru Kurbak, Bronwyn Lace, Marcus Neustetter, Behzad Khosravi Noori, Egle Oddo, Isa Rosenberger, Lina Selander, Tamsin Snow and Timo Tuhkanen.

The artists and the curator have been previously invited to Konstfack by Magnus Bärtås and Maria Lantz to take part in artist talks, Higher Seminars and Konstfack Research Week. In 2018, this collaboration was extended with Minimax/CrossSections, an integrated, collaborative project for the Department of Craft master’s programme, with Bella Rune, consisting of teaching residencies for the artists, workshops and an exhibition with the students accompanied by a publication.

CrossSections aims at discussing and sharing diverse realities, conditions and strategies in different geographies. By placing artistic production at the center of its research and mission, CrossSections is shaped by the cumulative, interdisciplinary input and data through meetings, residencies, performative presentations and publications. Its research process involves different focus groups, institutions and educational bodies which engage with re-positioning perspectives by giving priority to production. CrossSections provides various types of research and production-based residencies for project participants, which are affiliated with the partner institutions. Currently, the project has been a discursive act by accommodating the range of activities that support the on-going research of the artists with the aim to observe and record their methodologies. CrossSections takes one step further to activate the research discussions and exhibitions highlighting how these diverse methodologies come to the surface.

The exhibition at Konstfack will center on communicating paths of artistic research and knowledge. The exhibition design is intended to give an insight into the working methodologies of the artists and their different media. The integration of research material, documentation and the art works are critical to the performative values of the design and is supported by the exhibition format. Hence, the exhibition design allows for diverse and overlapping experiments and perceptions to be experienced by generating a flow and connection amongst the works.

A model of the CrossSections exhibition at Konstfack will be presented at Exhibition Laboratory at the University of the Arts Helsinki (Uniarts Helsinki) as well as Gallery Augusta at HIAP in Suomenlinna during October 2019.

The project partners include: Kunsthalle Exnergasse – WUK in Vienna; IASPIS – the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual and Applied Artists; Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design; and NFK – The Nordic Art Association in Stockholm; Nya Småland with different locations in Sweden; HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme and Academy of Fine Arts – University of the Arts Helsinki in Helsinki; Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia in Tallinn; and Press to Exit Project Space in Skopje. CrossSections is primarily supported by its partners. The project and associated book are generously supported by the Saastamoinen Foundation. CrossSections has received support from the Consulate General of Sweden and TECHIZART in Istanbul; Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien (The University of Applied Arts) in Vienna; and Culture Ireland in Dublin. The project was also hosted by Kamel Lazaar Foundation at B7L9 in Tunis as well as by Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien (The University of Applied Arts) in Vienna.

The exhibition is from October 2–15, 2019.
For questions about the exhibition, contact: Anne Klontz, Head of Exhibitions anne.klontz [​at​] konstfack.se

Konstfack is Sweden’s largest university for arts, crafts and design. Since 1844, we have educated a diverse range of professionals within these fields as well as art and sloyd teachers. We conduct both artistic and scientific education/research and currently have 900 students and 200 employees.