PRESS RELEASE FROM MEJAN LABS
Art and nature at your service at the Swedish Museum of Natural History
On the 11th of April the exhibition Changing Matters – The Resilience Art Exhibition opens at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm.
Changing Matters – the Resilience Art Exhibition is an art exhibition about the interplay between man and nature, about life in change. It is shown in addition to the international conference Resilience, Adaption and Transformation in Turbulent Times which for four days gathers some of the most prominent scientists, business leaders and politicians in the world in Aula Magna at Stockholm University, the 14th to 17th of April 2008. This summit will discuss ecology, economy and society using a resilience perspective, where man and nature will be studied as an integrated whole.
A jury with respected representatives from the art scene and scientists has chosen 12 artists artists/artists groups among the in total 220 proposals that were sent in on the resilience theme.
Among the chosen artists are Gunilla Bandolin and Sverker Sörlin (Sweden), who together have created a sculpture in the shape of a full size car using animal intestine as material; influenced by working methods of the Inuits and their way of using the resources of the nature; Tuula Närhinen (Finland) who will create an installation using floating pieces of plastic she has found near the sea; the Centre of Attention (France/United Kingdom) who put the attention on all ideas about the conventional art object and Christine Ödlund (Sweden) who, in collaboration with KTH, “translates” the chemical substances different plants sends out, when being attacked or stressed, to sound.
Changing Matters – the Resilience Art Exhibition is an initiative from Carl Folke, head of science at Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University and Olle Granath, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy of Fine Arts. The exhibition is a collaboration between the Swedish Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal University College of Fine Arts through Mejan Labs and the Royal Academy of Science through the Beijer Institute and the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University.
Resilience
Resilience is an interdisciplinary perspective on environment and development that distinguishes from other environmental research since man and nature is studied as an integrated whole. The concept has its origin in the research made in ecology science made in USA and Canada in the 1980’s and defines a system’s ability to withstand both sudden gradual change and still advance further. Concurrently with the progresses of the environmental research the resilience concept today includes economical as well as social and cultural dimensions, systems that in different ways branch off and is attached to the ecological reality that surrounds us.
Exhibition facts
Changing Matters – The Resilience Art Exhibition
Place: the Swedish Museum of Nature History
Date: 12April – 7 September 2008
Participating artists
Gunilla Bandolin and Sverker Sörlin (Sweden); Jon Brunberg (Sweden); Center of Attention (France/UK); Olle Cornéer and Martin Lübcke (Sweden); Todd Gilens (USA); Paul Matosic (UK); Teemu Mäki (Finland); Tuula Närhinen (Finland); Michael Rodemer (USA); Etta Säfve (Sweden); Angelo Vermeulen (Belgium); Christine Ödlund (Sweden).
Jury
Olle Granath, Carl Folke, Charlotte Gyllenhammar, artist, Peter Hagdahl, professor at the Royal University College of Fine Arts and director of Mejan Labs, Johan Scott, artist, Buzz Hollings, professor emeritus at University of Florida and one of the founders of the resilience concept and Frances Westley, professor of Strategy and Executive Director of the McGill-McConnell Program for National Voluntary Sector Leaders, McGill University, Montreal.
For further information contact: Frida Cornell,e-post: frida.cornell@mejanlabs.se +46 (0)70 369 15 29