Saltuna - The Baltic Sea Experience is a group exhibition focusing on art production and the specific situations and social relations influencing artistic work processes. The starting point for the exhibition was in 2002 on the Danish island of Bornholm where the art publisher Christoph Keller initiated his "Holiday Grant for Artists" project. Seventeen artists were invited to spend a week at the farmhouse Saltuna where they were offered an alternative work environment, social activities and recreation. The idea was to provide the artists with a possibility to challenge habitual ways of working with artistic production and to generate works from this specific situation.
Artists included inthe exhibition are: Jeanne Faust (D), Isabell Heimerdinger (D), Jakob Kolding (DK), Korpys/Löffler (D),
M+M (D), Jonathan Monk (UK), Claudia & Julia Müller (CH), Peter Piller (D),
Daniel Roth (D), Cornelia Schmidt-Bleek (D), Michael Stevenson (NZ), Gitte Villesen (DK), Stefan Wieland (D), Jörn Zehe (D)
Initiated by Christoph Keller, Revolver Books
The outcome is a wide range of small-scale projects, all with a strong sense of spontaneity and playfulness matching the easy-going atmosphere of the place. At Rooseum all the works are now shown together for the first time forming an intriguing overview of these playful experiments.
Following the philosophy of the Saltuna project, Rooseum has extended the concept and created a similar framework by inviting the artists involved to spend a week in Malmö to produce a work for the exhibition. The idea is to mirror the set-up on Bornholm and at the same time offer a different context by concluding in a joint presentation of the works. Inherent in the experimental nature of the layout is an element of unpredictability aimed at fostering a dynamic situation and creating a sense of energy to be reflected in the exhibition.
Methods of art production are numerous and cannot be contained within one single model. Therefore some of the artists have been asked to contribute existing works adding a further perspective on the included projects. The exhibition hereby consists of three elements, showing works created under varied circumstances and for dissimilar ends. The intention is to show the diversity of artistic positions and draw attention to the individual approaches as well as to provide a link between work evolving out of specific situations and work produced under more everyday circumstances.
Saltuna - The Baltic Sea Experience touches upon a range of aspects concerning artistic practice and seeks to reflect upon how artistic work is organized, perceived and dealt with by artists, curators and institutions. By using a different organising principle than a particular theme it is hoped that other readings and experiences will be allowed for revealing compelling connections between the works and artists included.
Saltuna - The Baltic Sea Experience is supported by ifa Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V.
and Pro Helvetia.
IMAGE
Stefan Wieland
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