When artists are convicted of environmental crimes: A talk on the responsibilities and rights of the artist

The starting point of the discussion is the legal process and judgment that followed the work Blick in Öja-Landsort in the archipelago of Stockholm.

Arranged by: Tegen2 in collaboration with the Swedish Art Critics’ Association

On the panel: Sophie Allgårdh, art critic Svenska Dagbladet; Dan Jönsson, art critic Dagens Nyheter; Simon Häggblom and Karin Lind, the artistic duo Simka; and Gunilla Skiöld Feiler, one of the artists behind the gallery Tegen2 in Södermalm.

Moderator: Ann-Sofie Bárány, playwright and psychoanalyst.

Time: 18:00 hrs this Thursday, 13 September 2012

Place: Simka will present the exhibit Yellow Hop at the Tegen2 gallery, Bjurholmsgatan 9b, underground station Skanstull. We will then proceed together to Simka’s studio in Malongen; Nytorget 15, staircase c, underground station Skanstull; where the speech will take place.

Background: Last year the artistic duo Simka – Simon Häggblom and Karin Lind – were sentenced by the Svea hovrätt (appellate court) to pay a fine for breaking the Environmental Code.
The crime: They drilled a hundred holes in the rocky beach of Öja-Landsort in the outer archipelago of Stockholm, when erecting their installation Blick, starting in 2008. The area is a natural preserve since 1985.

The work is made up of some thirty half-meter tall, plastic yellow houses with logotypes on them. The gables of the houses are facing the sea lane and are a reference to the reality that the people of Öja-Landsort live in. Every day, large freighters peppered with advertising pass by the island and ruin the idea of a picturesque idyll.
In the judgment, Simka refers to business praxis. They assumed that the exhibition arranger would have stopped the project had it not been legal to drill in the rocks. But the Svea hovrätt found otherwise. Simka should have understood that an area under nature protection requires special permission.

Nathalia Edenmont is also, in her current exhibition at the Wetterling Gallery, in conflict with pronounced nature protection interests. The focus is on a number of photo collages with wings, which in some cases belong to red-listed butterflies. Both the artist and the gallery have been reported to the police.

What are the rights and obligations of an artist? Nature and culture are often viewed as absolute entities. We expect total respect towards nature, but also towards art. This paves the way for conflict. Why, in the case of Simka, is there not a legally responsible publisher ready to take the blame, as in the newspaper world?

Welcome!

The roundtable will be held in Swedish.

Gender-pedagogical Achievments

Welcome to attend the release party for Gender-pedagogical Achievments, festschrift to Anna Lena Lindberg

Time: Thursday 10 May, 18:00–20:00
Place: The bookstore Konst-ig, Åsögatan 124, Stockholm
Free wine & snacks will be offered!

The editors of the book, Katarina Wadstein MacLeod, Johanna Rosenqvist, Maria Carlgren and Linda Fagerström will hold a short talk with Anna Lena Lindberg. The discussion will focus on feminist perspectives on contemporary art, gender perspectives on the writing of art history, and the importance of art pedagogy in the future.

The book will be offered at a special price during the evening.

About the book:
Gender-pedagogical Achievements. Subversive and Affirmative Action is a festschrift to Anna Lena Lindberg that summarizes her pioneering work as an art historian.

Authors: Linda Fagerström, Louise Waldén, Barbro Werkmäster, Anne Lidén, Inger Lövkrona, Eva Zetterman, Johanna Rosenqvist, Katarina Wadstein MacLeod, Maria Carlgren, Louise Andersson, Philippa Nanfeldt, Martin Sundberg, Margareta Willner-Rönnholm, Anne Wichstrøm, Tutta Palin,Jorunn Veiteberg and Malene Vest Hansen. Book cover artist: Jenny Grönvall, Peggy’s Shoe and the Sea (2004)

Gender-pedagogical Achievements contains articles by 15 art historians, art pedagogues, curators, historians and ethnologists. Art pedagogy and gender studies are discussed under the headings: Pioneering Achievements, Gender and Academy, The Possibilities of Art Pedagogy, and Woman and Artist. These two areas of art history bear clear traces of the achievements of Anna Lena Lindberg; subversive and revolutionary, affirmative and approving.

Arranged by: the Swedish Art Critics’ Association, Konst-ig and the editors.

The talk will be held in Swedish