The Playground is Open

The Playground is Open

Ă–sterlenskolan for Art & Design in collaboration with Brunakra Temporary and Karl Heinz Jeroen

October 2020

Ă–sterlenskolan for Art & Design is a prepatory 2-year art and cultural education within MYH. Our catchment area is the whole of Sweden. osterlenskolan.se osterlenskolan.com instagram.com/osterlenskolan

Collision, Collusion and Coincidence To adress artistic freedom, Unesco’s definition is what first come to mind: Artistic freedom embodies rights protected under international law: • the right to create without censorship or intimidation • the right to have artistic work supported, distributed, remunerated • the right to freedom of movement • the right to freedom of association • the right to protection of social and economic rights • the right to participate in cultural life During the initial exploration of ones future artistc practice it is important to know this, since imagination, narration, resistance, rebellion isn’t as given as we might imagine.

However, in this first collaboration between Österlenskolan and Brunakra Temporary, the focus has been on expanding the notion of artistic work. The workshop was called Collision, Collusion and Coincidence and held by this years artist and former resident at Brunakra, Karl Heinz Jeroen from Berlin and Athens. In his artistic practise chance operations play a leading role and he was here to introduce related methods, history and artists. In the struggle of inviting chance into ones work process, letting go of artistic, aesthetic preconseptions will be necessary. And there, projects and strategies are found, giving agency a new meaning.

I am so proud of the students from both first and second year, who gave chance a chance. I am also incredible happy about the collaboration with Brunakra, made possible in spite of the current pandemic.

Madeleine Tunbjer Principal The residency program BRUNAKRA Temporary has grown out of an interest for art and society particularly focusing on the artistic and productive process. It offers a sanctuary free from commercial interests giving time and space to work undisturbed on a dedicated project. The program attract international cultural practitioners and offer exchange of ideas with local and national networks.

Karl Heinz Jeroen

Artistic freedom or why chance is a good thing Artistic Freedom was the overall theme for a two week course.

We examined methods, motivations and modes of production within the art practice. The focus was on noninstitutional cultural groupings and diffuse production models. The examples spanned from Situationists, Gustav Metzger, Bas Jan Ader, Jonathan Meese, Charlotte Posenenske, Elaine Sturtevant, Eva Hesse to Katharina Grosse.

The students have been encouraged to create both a critical and playful distancing from established rules and practices.

To meet the questions around artistic freedom the students were introduced to artistic chance operations, namely Aleatoricism, Serendipity and Singularity. Aleatoricism covers chance operations within a given frame. Serendipity refers to the unexpected discovery made possible by a happy coincidence, Singularity is the exception to the rule.

What’s actually a coincidence? One speaks of coincidence when no causal explanation can be given for an event or the coincidence of several events. The explanation for chance is therefore the renunciation of an explanation.

We might want coincidence in our artistic practice in order to occasionally give it a new direction, to open up new perspectives, to take new decision paths.

At the end of the workshop we organized a one day pop up exhibition on-site at Brunakra. Here the student works, which were produced as reactions to the presented artistic practices, were on display.

Karl Heinz Jeroen

Adrian Room

A collaboration with nature.

The pieces are created with aleatorics as method.

Adrian Room

Sensation 2020 Triptych Cloth, pigments, rainwater, candles, soil

Adrian Room

Adrian Room

Andreas Hedenmark

I discovered a broken lamp in my bathroom and decided to film it without any idea what would become of it. Based on this filmed material which consisted of flashes and rays of light, both angels and music were born. This is probably what is called “Serendipity�, when the discovery of a broken lamp laid the foundation for this work.

Andreas Hedenmark

Suljan 2020 Video and music 5 min 17 sek

Clara Diab

Putin is father to life and death, daughters and violence.

The sculpture captures dangerous fertility and political privacy. A glass vagina obeys and revolts when it gives birth to a strong censured leg. An ocean of Russian sauce weaves together bloodline and blood bath. Waves of Ketchup made in Sweden undress our weapon trade and intimate relations with dictatorships. The sculpture represents common responsibility and connection.

Clara Diab

Putin PoorTrade 2020 Big as half a hood Mixed material

Clea van Berkel

I have chosen singularity because we need to rethink, change our mindset, go on a different path.

In my work I want to give a glimpse of the forest’s universe, essence, narratives, encounters, knowledge which is completely independent of man.

No matter how much we devastate, destroy, investigate or save, we will never really have access to the forest.

But if we begin to listen we might hear it and give the forest the respect it deserves.

Clea van Berkel

Being with the forest 2020 Video 05:11min

Elin Andersson Engler

I worked with aleatorics (chance) and used chance by letting a deck of cards direct the way I was walking. Every card was given a direction () and I then took a card and then a step and repeated this until I’d gone through the entire deck, at which point I reshuffled the cards and continued. The piece ended when I felt finished. I performed the piece on a beach because I was curious to see whether or not the cards would lead me into the water.

Elin Andersson Engler

Under the Influence of the Cards 2020 Filmed performance 8:19 min

Elin Ovent

The one who seeks the truth shall perish before the fate of madness.

Elin Ovent

Inevitable Torment 2020 Objects, cloth, plaster

Emily Stajkovic

When you look at a singularity, it is always a circle. And sometimes, there’s another one in the middle of it. And when I started to look at it, a bit closer, it resembled almost a watch for me. But is there any time in space? Let alone, in a black hole? No. Time is indefinite. Infinite. There are no numbers, no hours, it’s just… empty. I wouldn’t have gotten to this work if it wasn’t for Karl. He told me to explore other paths, and I did. Oil is no common method of mine, nor is going a different way than I first imagined.

Emily Stajkovic

Beyond Time 2020 Oil on canvas, with a watch built in.

32 x 22,5 cm

Emma Eriksson

Contemplate.

Is this a piece of art or is it just a frame?

Does anything change your perspective by looking through it?

What could be within the frame?

Would you take a selfie with yourself in it or try to frame a view?

Or perhaps you come up with something new?

To me this is a piece of art that brings up things we make by hand.

It also symbolises the beauty in the materials nature gives us.

Frame whatever you want!

With the method serendipity I created this piece of art.

I was contemplating and walked around my house and yard. I found plenty of wood and yarn. I took a glue gun and it became a frame that I now call Framer.

Emma Eriksson

Framer 2020 Wood, yarn and glue 91 x 57,5 cm Presented as video

Emma Strรถm

I used the methods of chance and serendipity when creating this work. Dropping the pieces in the ground created the forms, and nailing them together through the holes already existing shaped it without me having the chance to decide how the final forms would look like.

I then added the wood, glass and plastic to the copper forms. I thought the value of the different materials communicated to each other, creating a balance between the social, economical and historical values of each material.

Emma Strรถm

Balance 2020 Copper, wood, plastic, glass 4 pieces: 2,20 x 40 x 10 cm 2,20 x 60 x 10 cm

Emma Strรถm

Emma Strรถm

Hyra

Yellow is my favorite color. I have a yellow dress on the only photo left of me at this age. My dad had to realize that I love myself, even though I look different from the rest of my siblings. He thought burning the pictures would dispel the difference. He did not know that my heart is also different. I want freedom, he wants heaven. I have to fly, he needs to imprison. I want to escape religion, he continues to draw near and make us his sacrificial offerings. My father does not know that the fire where he burned my pictures is still burning in my heart. The yellow glow that comes out of the fire of my heart is what drives me forward. The little one has grown up and is still different.

Singularity is what I worked with because it gives the freedom I seek. In addition, I used my body to express my case. Art is my window to the light while I am in the dark.

This is a painting for me against the background of the psychological conditions I live under.

Hyra

_gult_ 2020 Acrylic on canvas 90 x 65 cm

Jenni Schรถld

Can it be that the negative vibration of uncertainty is an illusion build up from the fear of losing control? Frustration.

A noise, a feeling of something being stuck in your body.

Truly You where never in charge of this path. But the illusion was there to close the doors on the side of the road. Missing out of beauty unfolding in front of your feet while you where busy controlling, making sure the story ends the way you planned it to. And in the end, did it?

The method being used is aleatoricism. A method where the work is made with the coincidence as a tool, used in a conscious way.

Jenni Schรถld

The Mist - Unclear 2020 Cloth, canvas, paint, water

Lars-Marcus Obrelius

With this artwork I try to shed some light on the seemingly forgotten word flâneur, the aimless and thoughtless strolling. Walking today is usually a time-optimizing transport route. You often have a goal of where to go, you have to get from point A to point B and you often do it in the most time-efficient and fastest way. Therefore, you often follow in the same footsteps and discover nothing new, your impressions are routine, you see the same houses, streets, trees, forests, people and so on. You do not know your own city.

In order to get to know Simrishamn better, I have, through artistic freedom, used aleatoricism, singularity and serendipity in the creation of this artwork. The artwork shows my movement pattern through the streets of Simrishamn. On four different occasions I walked during one hour with only a coin as my guide. By every crossroads I singled out which way to go using heads or tails. That way, I had no idea which way I would go or where I would end up. I left both myself and my artwork to chance to discover something new.

Lars-Marcus Obrelius

SIMRISHAMN FLÂNEUR 2020 A3 Prints 5 pieces, A3 Prints 16,5 x 11,7 in (420 x 297 cm)

Lisa Jönsson

Using stream of consciousness writing, I started off this project by trying to find the absolute definitions of chance, causality and artistic freedom. The result was a very chaotic text, fittingly about chaos, which later became the cover of my zine.

I tried different chance operations during the project, only to find that I already have a close, almost interdependent collaboration with chance in my life. Chance is perhaps the one true unmoved mover, the very first enabler in life.

Therefore, I did the opposite of what was asked of me. I tried to control every single detail of my project and sure enough, the result still seemed to me random. The fact that my project became a zine, an art form historically characterized by free expression outside capitalism, was unplanned yet very fitting, once again showcasing what collaborating with chance can do.

The final art zine follows my exploration of said concepts, hopefully inviting people in to reflect further on these themes.

Lisa JĂśnsson

untitled 2020 art zine Online art zine lisajonsson.pb.online & on-site at BrunĂĽkra displayed on a metal construction

Madeleine Roslin

My three works, Inhale exhale, Whats cooking and The End together reflect the hopes and fears of today. I used the method of aleatoricism when I created the paintings.

I let a dice decide which colors I would use and in what order.

Madeleine Roslin

The Holocene 2020 Acrylic on canvas and vegetative work

Malin Sjรถstedt

This piece is a critique to the concept of a concept. A combination of pure operation of chance and burning plaster.

My work is a chance depending project. To me, chance is what arises in the absolute present. Thus the result of the factors that interact and create in exactly the same millisecond. A millisecond that you as an artist can try to control through different factors to varying degrees, but which in the end is not up to me. What becomes, becomes.

Malin Sjรถstedt

The Non Concept Concept 2020 Plywood and plaster 100 x 120 cm

Marie Therese Ridoff

Growth is inevitable and uncontrollable. The growing and flowing Form cannot be carefully planned, nor can you contain the tracks left by it’s experience.  This work was based on an aleatoric concept (element of chance) using wool strings to lead colour onto the plasterbandaged sculpture from jars containing blue, yellow and red food dye. Done over a period of 4 hours, strings were randomly placed over and around the sculpture and left until dry or saturated, then replaced with new strings. The chance operation came from not knowing how the colours would behave both with the sculpture as well as with each other.

Marie Therese Ridoff

Growth Washed Over 2020 Chicken nets, plaster bandages, gauze bandages, food dye

Martin Tedin

The goal of my project was to provide visitors with a visual representation of their aggressions by allowing them to randomly pop balloons inside an opaque box.

I managed to use all of the three methods Karl described to us.

Martin Tedin

The Angry Box 2020 Wood 755 x 755 x 820 mm

Matilda Brendestam

Once upon a time I stumbled over a Singularity my life suddenly took an unexpected turn Complicated chains of events, tons of memories, Numbers & letters, everything turned upside down A crossroad with different paths to follow What will life throw at me next?

“Singularity (system theory), in dynamical and social systems, a context in which a small change can cause a large effect”. As long as I remember I have collected antique and vintage books with fairytales, folktales and mythology. These quite often are built around repetitions and numbers.

Matilda Brendestam

Singularity - an unexpected event 2020 Glass, spray paint, wood, leaves, oil paint 120 x 75 x 35 cm

Matilda Josefsson

Sometimes it does not turn out as we intended.

Sometimes better, sometimes worse.

I was involuntarily exposed to serendipity. My idea was snatched away from me before my eyes and I tried to find the positive in it all. “Miss the bus but find the love of your life”, Karl described it as. No Serendipity without a happy ending. I took the basic idea and thought about how I could reach “the love of my life”. It resulted in this work that can be interpreted however pleases the viewer, but for me it is mostly about the road to here.

Matilda Josefsson

Untitled 2020 Clay

Maya Käck

It was asked to create problems, use chance and coincidence. It was asked to make cities in models, not to make cities in models, to create from papier machĂŠ, to go out in town with a dice. I was asked to make an entrance. So I tried to climb this insurmountable task of understanding myself in this free art. Eventually I got angry. In the end, I gave up. Finally I lay down flat. In my newfound martyrdom I made an entrance.

A temporary interactive installation. How is the work received as an entrance? Who will step on the stairs? What will happen to me and the stairs after an evening of feet?

Or an evening of no feet? What is the purpose of this staircase? To be climbed or not to be climbed?

Serendipity: I was looking for something but found something else.

Singularity: I broke my own set of rules for what artistic freedom would be.

Maya Käck

Do not walk on me - Walk on me 2020 Furniture paint on chipboard, acrylic paint on plywood and plastic for curtain

Misty Olsson

Using the aleatory method, I traced my first step out of bed every morning for 8 mornings. Depending on the chance of where my feet land, and overlapping them; random forms will be created.

Misty Olsson

Wake up Call 2020 Acrylic & pastel on canvas 120 cm x 150 cm

Reem Kabani

This waterfall is a homeland, stability, happiness and hope.

I used the aleatory method.

Reem Kabani

Shallal 2020 50 x 50 x 20 cm Plaster, concrete. cork, acrylic paint, plants, waterfall, light

Sara Håkansson

The involuntary isolation due to Corona has led to people building and fixing at home much more than in many, many years. There has even been a shortage of several materials here in Sweden and it has forced people to rethink, think new and take a closer look at what they already have and may have had all along...

Under the topic ”Artistic freedom” we were given three differnt themes, aleatoric, singularity and serendipity to choose from. I decided to work with serendipity, felt it was most challenging. But the more I worked on the task, the more I realized that I actually worked with them all in different ways and that I probably usually do otherwise as well, I just have not had a name for it before.

Sara HĂĽkansson

Corona - renaissance for the handyman 2020 Leftover material – metal, wood and textile 200 X 76 cm

Österlenskolan continues its 25th anniversary in various ways Between 12/10 - 23/10, the students have worked with the artist duo and the physical platform Gylleboverket and a final site specific self organized pop-up We will end our anniversary year in collaboration with the artist duo Bigert & Bergström at Rikstolvan from 30 / 11 – 18/12 and an exhibition over Christmas and New Year Let’s meet!