Speculative Gatherings
Artists
What is Speculative Gatherings?
In Spring 2024 the MFA Fine Art programme at HDK-Valand presents Speculative Gatherings at Slakthuset in Gothenburg. In the spirit of creative and experimental ambitions, graduating students share a selection of their artistic work at the site that will become the future Göteborgs Konsthall.
This year’s group have taken up the opportunity of a new, temporary location at Slakthuset, understanding it as a kind of creative hub in which they can welcome and host new audiences to their work. Developed as 14 independent artistic projects motivated by processes of research and enquiry, Speculative Gatherings is a public occasion offering a dynamic series of art works, hosted talks, dinners, performances, readings and screenings.
Under the collective title of Speculative Gatherings the group aims to explore: “What worlds are possible? What stories do we want to tell? In a society focused on the individual, how do we create ways of gathering? Speculating asks us to think about how things are and how they could be. When we gather we make worlds, share ideas, use tools, and tell stories.”
Visit us at Slakthuset!
Adress:
Slakthusområdet, Hus A,
Gamlestaden, Göteborg
Opening Hours and Dates:
10-18th of May, 2024
10/5: Vernissage 17-19
11/5: 12-18
12/5: 12-18
13/5: Closed
14/5: Closed
15/5: 12-19
16/5: 12-19
17/5: 12-19
18/5: 12-18
Tramstop: Gamlestads Torg
Coordinates:
57.729215652657295, 12.001977176578343
Google Maps link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/F1oqvGXKTbBw7STg8
You take a tram to Gamlestadens Torg or a commuter train to Gamlestadens station. Go towards the Gamlestaden Resecentrum, where there is a staircase down to the underpass under the tracks. You go up the underpass towards Waterloogatan. There you cross at the bus stop. Then you turn right onto Lilla Waterloogatan and follow it straight until you reach the restaurant Wine Mechanics (Lilla Waterloogatan 15) where you turn right until you come to house A, where you turn in and see our entrance.
Here is a video on instagram describing how to walk to our venue from Gamlestaden station
Car:
You turn off E45/Marieholmsleden towards Waterloogatan and turn onto Lilla Waterloogatan where there is parking. Then you go to the restaurant Wine Mechanics, where you turn right until you come to house A, where you turn in and see our entrance
The space is wheelchair accessible
Public Programme:
Speculative Gatherings
Slakthusområdet, Hus AGamlestan, Göteborg
Welcome to a series of public events at Speculative Gatherings! This programme offers different occasions to learn more about our artistic projects, the ideas behind them, the research topics and questions they explore. We’ve invited local and national guests to join us for tours, public talks, and conversations.
All events at Speculative Gatherings are FREE!
Some have limited places and require you to register through the links provided.
Friday 10 may 17:00-19:00
Welcome to the launch of Speculative Gatherings with talks, performances and exhibition at our venue in Gamlestaden, Göteborg!
Hosted by MFA students, 20:00 – 23:00. Register HERE!
Parent-Child Workshop:
Drawing & Painting & Conversations on Mothering
Saturday 11 May, 13:00-15:00
Language: English & Swedish
Materials provided
Join artist Cori Rina Oancea for a parent-child workshop, where we engage in drawing, painting, and conversations centered around mothering, parenting, and motherhood. Through this collaborative effort, we aim to foster different perspectives on the subject, guided by the artistic voices of our children.
Speculative Gatherings Q & A Tour 1
Saturday 11 May, 15:00-16:30
Language: English
Find out more about the processes, concepts and intentions behind the artistic projects in Speculative Gatherings. Welcome to a ‘Questions & Answers’ tour with seven of the artists and guests Onkar Kular and Seda Yildiz. Artists: Sam Druant, Zhang Xiya, David Spraggs, Cori Rina Oancea, Josefin Tingvall, Karen Froede, Raghad Resres.
Seda Yıldız is an independent curator and PhD Researcher at the HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg. Her research interests include curating site-specific and socially engaged art practices; artist collectives and self-archiving practices.
Onkar Kular is Professor of Design at HDK Valand and coordinator for PLACE (Public Life, Arts, Critical Engagement) at the Artistic Faculty, University of Gothenburg. In 2022 he was Co-Artistic Director of the Luleå Art Biennial.
Parent-Child Workshop:
Drawing & Painting & Conversations on Mothering
Sunday 12 May, 13:00-15:00
Language: English & Swedish
Materials provided
Join artist Cori Rina Oancea for a parent-child workshop, where we engage in drawing, painting, and conversations centered around mothering, parenting, and motherhood. Through this collaborative effort, we aim to foster different perspectives on the subject, guided by the artistic voices of our children.
Belysa det dolda:
Samtal om minne i det offentliga rummet
Sunday 12 May, 15:30-16:30
Language: Swedish
Hur kan konstnärer behandla frågor om massvåld och minoriteter? Vilken betydelse har minnesmonumentet och vilken roll spelar offentliggörandet av offrens namn? Utifrån konstinstallationen Enemy of the people, som handlar om Sovjets massavrättningar av den karelska ursprungsbefolkningen i Ryssland samtalar Dominika Kemilä med författaren Kenneth Hermele om minnets plats i samhället.
Dominika Kemilä är konstnär. Innehar kandidat- och masterexamen i textilkonst från HDK, 2017.
Kenneth Hermele är ekonom, författare och humanekolog. Tilldelades Årets Katzstipendium 2023 och hans bok En shtetl i Stockholm nominerades till Augustpriset 2018.
Homunculi Read
Tuesday 14 May, 18:30-20:30
Language: English
Expression of interest link!
Dinner by Babemba Kitchen
Come, read, eat and be together.
Homunculi Read is a collective reading event with dinner. Assembled through mediaeval European alchemical magic, Homunculi had the capacity to make further magical bodies. Excerpts from texts on the commons, magic, feminism, and collectivity will be gathered to form a spell. It will be the offering of a temporary refuge from the rationalism favoured by capital.
When incanting our textual spell together we will temporarily transform into a group body-voice. Feeding this body-voice with reading, thinking, discussion and food will yield magical thinking and imagination.
Love,
Sam Druant and David Spraggs
Sam Druant focuses on exploring feminist themes in her artistic practice through the lens of magical thinking. She delves into the intricacies of everyday struggles and societal expectations, weaving them into alternative worlds. Her work often departs from personal experiences, expanding and transforming as they intersect with multiple references, ultimately evolving into artistic projects.
David Spraggs is an artist working with performance. David aims to make space, time, and tools for thinking and being otherwise. His practice is a kind of nuanced socially engaged art, which he calls an enchanting practice. This has core values of co-authorship, critical imagination, and where Magick acts as an evocative interplay with each other and more than human worlds. He makes moments for making together with others and using our collective imagination to be otherwise.
Another Knot in the Room
Thursday 16 May, 12:00-13:00
Language: English
Sign up here! (Limited to 10 places)
Lunch Provided.
Another Knot in the Room is a lunchtime discussion centred around spatial activism between white cubes and everyday practices. Based on her performance Sewing the Room, Raghad Resres initiates a dialogue with Dr. Feras Hammami, exploring the dynamics of spatial engagement both within and beyond traditional art settings.
Raghad Resres is a Jordanian research-based artist of Palestinian descent. Her artistic practice lies at the crossroads of conceptual art, theatre, and performance.
Feras Hammami is a researcher, writer, and Senior Lecturer in Critical Heritage Studies at University of Gothenburg. His research concerns the politicisation of heritage, its entanglement in social conflicts and resistance in cities, and the new possibilities that heritage can offer for reconciliation and peacebuilding.
Thursday 16 May, 18:30-20:00
Language: Swedish (film has English subtitles)
Visning av Theres K Agdlers film BROTTET – the quarry crime. Arne Müller föreläser och samtalar med Theres K Agdler om hennes konstprojekt, utnyttjandet av naturresurser i norr och den så kallade gröna framtiden. Välkommen att se installationen Fragment av ett Brottslandskap före filmvisningen. Efter samtalet serveras soppa, bröd och dryck för er som vill fortsätta samtala.
Theres K Agdler är konstnär och författare. Hon studerade Fri Konst vid Kunstakademiet i Trondheim, Norge och Kungliga Konsthögskolan i Stockholm.
Arne Müller är journalist och författare bosatt i Umeå. Hans senaste bok Norrsken – drömmen om den gröna industrin handlar om de stora industrisatsningar som pågår i norra Sverige.
Vill du äta soppa skicka gärna ett mejl till:
thereskagdler@gmail.com senast 13/5.
Glitched Reality and Virtual Building
Friday 17 May, 12:00-13:00
Language: English
Sign up here! (Limited to 10 places)
Lunch provided.
Join us for a lunch conversation between Ville Hulling, Josefin Tingvall and Gorki Glaser-Müller! From Ville Hullings's work method about glitches and Josefins Tingvalls practice about material-based virtual world-building the lunch event centres around working with the virtual spectrum in an artistic practice and different approaches to this developing media.
Ville Hulling is an explorative artist and filmmaker from Matfors. With a background in filmmaking and visual communication, he chooses not to be limited to specific mediums as a way of keeping his experimental possibilities open.
Josefin Tingvall is a multidisciplinary artist with a base in textiles and craft. Her practice is rooted in a material enquiry into the dynamics, manipulation, and entanglements of objects and environments.
Gorki Glaser-Müller is a freelance film director based in Gothenburg, known for the Guldbaggen-nominated documentary Children of the Enemy (2021) and for experimenting with storytelling in different forms: VR, MR, 360 film and volumetric recordings. He is also the project manager of Narrative XR Lab at Visual Arena in Gothenburg.
Discussion:
The unique needs of parents within educational communities
Friday 17 May, 15:00-16:00
Language: English & Swedish
Fika provided
Join artist-student Cori Rina Oancea for an informal discussion and fika with educators Klara Björk and Lotta Kvist.
Recognising parenthood as a significant aspect of individuals' lives, HDK-Valand Academy of Art & Design at University of Gothenburg has undertaken efforts to ensure an equitable and supportive study environment for all, but more can be done to help parents who are also students. What could be developed and implemented within the university for the future?
As a multidisciplinary artist, Cori Rina Oancea creates thought-provoking pieces that serve as catalysts for profound conversations about pressing societal issues such as feminism, motherhood, and gender policies. She initiated the discussions around mothering inside the university, and it has become a project currently in development.
Klara Björk is Prefekt / Head of Department for HDK-Valand Academy of Art & Design at the University of Gothenburg. Before this she was program responsible for the Masters Film program at HDK-Valand. She teaches on matters related to producing and publicness within the film program.
Lotta Kvist is a designer and senior lecturer at HDK-Valand Academy of Art & Design. She has an assignment within the Faculty of the Arts on the topic of student health and environment.
Expanding Painting
Saturday 18 May, 12:00-14:00
Language: English
Sign up here! (Limited to 7 places)
Lunch provided
We invite you to encounter the historical medium of painting as a valuable tool to challenge the narrations to which we hold on today. Please sign up if you are interested in having a relaxed conversation about the role of painting in contemporary art and how we can appropriate painting to discuss and practice commoning strategies. This event is organised as a lunch conversation with the artist Sigrid Holmwood. By acknowledging the practice of pigment-making from organic materials as a parallel to food-making processes, the participants are invited to enjoy the relations in the proposal of 'painting as lunch'.
*The lunch served at the event is vegan but contains sunflower seeds and linseeds. In case of allergies or intolerance, feel free to contact ida.bomm@posteo.de to discuss alternatives.
Sigrid Holmwood is an artist who works with the figure of the peasant and how she has been used to construct modernity. Central to her practice is the research of plant dyes, unearthing their relationships with folklore, colonialism, and modernity. Recent exhibitions include The Commons: Reenchanting the World, at the Museum of English Rural Life, Reading, UK and Blue Wood, Black Iron at Kunsthalle Seinäjoki, Finland.
Ida Bomm explores historically preconceived ideas and tropes about painting as a form of artistic production and ‘the painter’ as artist. She approaches painting as a productive field that can open up conversations on how we are, allowing us to imagine alternatives.
Speculative Gatherings Q & A Tour 2
Saturday 18 May, 15:00-16:30
Language: English
Find out more about the processes, concepts and intentions behind the artistic projects in Speculative Gatherings. Welcome to a ‘Questions & Answers’ tour with seven of the artists and guests Petra Johansson and Thiago de Paula Souza. Artists: Theres K. Agdler, Alqumit Alhamad, Ida Bomm, Dominika Kemilä, Iza Štrumbelj Oblak, Catja Tonberg, Ville Hulling.
Petra Johansson is Artistic Director at Göteborgs Konsthall. Prior to this she was manager and curator for the artistic residency platform Art Inside Out in Halland. She has also worked as artistic project manager and consultant for the Västra Götaland region.
Thiago de Paula Souza is an independent curator and PhD Researcher at HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg. He works with artists interested in the intersection of nature, digital futures and political subjectivities, be they framed by race or gender.
See our opening hours and how to get here
Alqumit Alhamad
alqumit@gmail.comAlqumit Alhamad (b. 1992) is born in Jordan and raised in Cyprus and Syria, based in Sweden. Alhamad’s artistic practice is deeply rooted in an understanding of displacement, reflecting the experiences of a war refugee. His work explores themes such as rootlessness, diaspora, storytelling, queerness, and renewal. Thriving at the intersection of the diverse cultural landscapes that he grew up in.
The art project materializes as an installation, taking the form of a 2 x 2 meters cube enveloped in a "Dictatorship Blue." Situated prominently within the center of a space, the cube is intentionally designed to be cryptic, prompting individuals to discern the entry mechanism and subsequently explore its internal contents. No signs, texts, or warnings, just as if you are caught up in a sudden foreign invasion. Complementing a sound featuring a humming lullaby component is installed to evoke both curiosity and intimidation and serve as a method of interrogation and forewarning.
alqumit.com
Alqumit Alhamad, Lament of Warefare, digital design of the installation, 2024
Ida Bomm
ida.bomm@posteo.deIda Bomm is a research-based artist with an additional educational background in pedagogy. She is currently based in Gothenburg, Sweden. In her practice, she departs from the historical medium of painting, which she uses as a tool to encounter alternative pasts and a strategy to initiate collective speculations on futures through imagination and empathy.
This ongoing research project aims to critically investigate the historical medium of painting as a practice of individualism and human mastery. Acknowledging materials as nonhuman collaborators and perceiving them beyond their visual properties become methods to narrate the history of painting, inextricably linked to a western history of growth and capitalism, differently. Perspectives of the project are shown as collaborative pigment collection. Moreover, Ida invites you to join us for a dinner in which we will propose painting as a strategy for the commons.
instagram.com/ida_bomm
agitatedpainting.cargo.site
Ida Bomm, Making of and thinking through pigments, 2024
Sam Druant
sam.druant@gmail.comSam Druant focuses on exploring feminist themes in her artistic practice through the lens of magical thinking. She delves into the intricacies of everyday struggles and societal expectations, weaving them into alternative worlds. Her work often departs from personal experiences, expanding and transforming as they intersect with multiple references, ultimately evolving into artistic projects.
Sam’s project is trying to counter individualistic and androcentric society, with a focus on hormones and reproductive care. Looking at the research of Silvia Federici, she realized how capitalism played a significant role in the lack of knowledge, funding and development for this care. The loss of commons led to less land for people to come together in a safe space. The installation is a reaction to this and wants to offer a common space, to share experiences, tips and references. The intent is not to heal individuals but to create room for imagination around this topic and build connections.
samdruant.com
instagram.com/samdruant
Sam Druant, detail of 'Setting the Stage', 2024
Speculative Gatherings
Slakthusområdet,
Hus A, Göteborg
10 - 18 May, 2024
10/5: Opening event 17-19
11/5: 12-18
12/5: 12-18
13/5: Closed
14/5: Closed
15/5: 12-19
16/5: 12-19
17/5: 12-19
18/5: 12-18
Instagram:
speculative_gatherings
Contact:
maddie.leach@hdk-valand.gu.se