Summer 2011

Shaping the City

This summer course will be to investigate Mariestad, a small seemingly idyllic city on Lake Vänern.

June 20 – July 29, 9 ECTS

Course leader: Amanda Herman, Anna-Viola Hallberg, Guest artists Andreas Eriksson, Mason Nye

EXTENDED application deadline April 30, 2011.
Application instructions

Murals, performance, found objects, interventions, sitespecific work – contemporary discourse and interdisciplinary experimentation is encouraged. Researching the past, present and future of the city by the lake, the city by the river, city of workers, city of clerks, city of students, city of unemployed, city of middle size, city of strength, city of fear, city of dreams, city of stories, city of art.
We will not tell you what the city is about – we want you to use art as a research lab and tell us what you see. From July through out September the city of Mariestad is, in a communal process, “reviewing the city identity and vision” via it’s past present and future.
This summer course and resulting exhibition, is the vehicle for investigation and activation of the city: giving it ambiance, amplitude and a critical voice. Site is a key feature to the project unlocking congested spaces of memories and initiating a dialogue and to evoke ulterior perspectives via graffiti, murals, collage or any other technique. Stories surface and fragments of the core or the fringe(s) of the city is research, sampled or assembled. The city, Mariestad, provides accommodation, studio space, field trip and some ”tusovskas” where as Valand School of Fine Art brings in the teaching staff consisting of artists and theorists from Sweden and internationally. Amanda Herman is the course leader and as the curator of the exhibition Anna Viola Hallberg will be available for the students and function as the hub between the summer course and the city in a broader sense. Participants in the summer course are asked to present their work in a public exhibition at the end of the course. The applied method is the collaborate-format where, individuals can work on their own as long as it is with in the concept of rethinking public landscape and activating the grounds in and around the city. The project is a taskforce that jointly will take the city apart and assemble it again in order to figure out what the city is all about. As the works are done a shorter essay/statement of the work is requested from each participant and will be part of the city archive.

Prerequisite: completed upper secondary high school education, good english skills.