On 27th May, the group exhibition Örat mot marken och blicken utåt (An ear to the ground, gazing outwards) opened at Kalmar konstmuseum. The exhibition is part of the first instance of the Småland triennial which takes place during the summer of 2023. For the duration of the triennial, Kalmar konstmuseum also has a collaboration with Kulturvagnen (The culture carriage), Kerstin Björk and Tony Blomdahl and their rebuilt caravan which functions as a mobile art gallery in Småland’s countryside.
The caravan exhibition Efterkonstruktioner (Revisionisms), preceded by an open call, will visit different places in Kalmar County. The common denominator between Kalmar konstmuseum and Kulturvagnen is to investigate the concept of a designed living environment.
Since 2018, a designed living environment is a collated political space with goals set by the Swedish parliament. It is about an encompassing view of our living environment where art, architecture, design and cultural heritage constitute a clear part of community planning across the country. But how is this realised and how do smaller towns benefit? Who decides the way in which public space is designed? What role does art and professional artists, architects and designers play in the interaction between citizens and politics? What shape will a future Småland take? The concept of a designed living environment is generally associated with public spaces such as squares, parks, playgrounds and public buildings. But if we expand our view, humanity interacts with everything that surrounds it. Could it be compared to nature’s way of organising and structuring its habitats?
Five artists have been invited to the exhibition at Kalmar konstmuseum: Johanna Karlin, Anne Hamrin Simonsson, Amanda Selinder and Jan Carleklev. They all bring with them experiences of taking on public commissions or site specific explorations of different landscapes and environments. On the top floor, the artists will install new site specific artworks, or explore ideas and processes they want to investigate further. Thematically, focus will be on thoughts about what constitutes a designed living environment, but bureaucratic concepts rarely gel well with art’s unruly trajectory. It is in the nature of art to be unpredictable and open to interpretation. Visitors will encounter roots, hoofprints by sheep, slats of long, thin tree trunks, white shelves, sound imagery of tomato plants and abstract scenes from the cells in our eyes.
Jan Carleklev, b. 1972 lives in Braås outside Växjö. In his projects he often returns to nature’s fascinating diversity – which humanity often overlooks in our constant pursuit of growth. Using sounds and listening, Jan Carleklev wants to create the necessary conditions for voices and sounds that we fail to notice. His artwork and process based works tend to come about where humans, nature and places meet.
Johanna Karlin, b. 1964 splits her time between Berlin and the village Kläppinge on Öland. The farm in Kläppinge has become a home, a production site and a showroom. In her artworks and installations, she tends to use recycled material from everyday life as a starting point. One of her recurring methods is to identify and emphasise contexts and items from both a historical and contemporary perspective. In her ongoing investigations she approaches a different kind of architecture as she alternates observations from the cosmopolitan city and the countryside of Öland and Småland.
Anne Hamrin Simonsson, b. 1967 lives in Färjestaden on Öland. She works conceptually with different objects and materials depending on what it is she wants to explore. With careful consideration, she chooses meaningful objects of many layers and contexts. The objects are often charged, leading her on to new encounters and tales. Anne Hamrin Simonsson is inspired by finding meeting points where past and present converge. In her artworks and installations she reminds the viewer of the similarities between humans and nature. Recurring themes are birth, life and death.
Amanda Selinder, b. 1990 is a bioart and textile artist living and working in Uppsala. She explores humanity as a part of nature and makes biological processes visible that are normally hidden to the naked eye. As an example, she uses mushroom mycelia, algae and bacteria to dye textiles. In a new piece for the exhibition, she starts from the cells in our eyes, how cells are broken down and how they are constantly in motion. During the spring, Amanda Selinder has been an artist in residence at the Linneaus University and the department of knowledge environments – advanced materials.
Photo: Pia i stallet (Pia in the stable), Johanna Karlin