hands

St. John the Baptist. Leonardo da Vinci 1513-1516.

"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art."

- Leonardo da Vinci

a dalí or disney destiny?

"A magical display of the problem of life in the labyrinth of time." according to Salvador Dalí.

"A simple story about a young girl in search of true love." said Walt Disney.

I say; create your own meaning!

pearls of gothenburg III

Viktor Byhr and his Sicilian beauty Etna

Viktor Byhr is a rising artist of Gothenburg. Today, I went by to visit the opening of his new exhibition at the super cosy gallery Mitticentrum. Byhr offers an intriguing mix of stylish font art, garbage collage and his speciality; a humoristic twist on Gothenburg's 'Goa Gubbar'.
Currently, he seems to be as frequent in the Gothenburg galleries as on the street. No matter the space used, he wants us to stop - and think - twice. It's art with a message. A message concerning how we live and how we spend the resources of this planet. It's serious... and playful. Sometimes, he just wants us to stop - and smile.

This Pearl of Gothenburg soon goes LA. Along with other interesting artists, Byhr is selected for a global showcase of spray can art: CANCEPTUAL V.4, at the Crewest Gallery, September 8-25, 2011. Peek his piece >>here.

artists and scientists

The artist and the geneticist.
The poet and the speech scientist.
The photographer and the physiologist.
The theatre director and the neuroscientist.

The Guardian on 'When two tribes meet: collaborations between artists and scientists'. Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian > Culture, Sunday 21 August 2011.

[too complicated] to simply love art

Charlotte St, London. Där tog jag detta foto förra helgen. Ibland är det bara så enkelt, så lätt. Som texten på dörren där. I love Art. Senaste tiden har dock diskussionen känts ganska komplicerad och den tar vid när man minst anar det. Som till exempel till bords under bröllopet jag gästar i lördags. Jag har då nöjet att få en psykologs perspektiv på konstruktiv respektive destruktiv kreativitet, samt intressanta vinklar på vad som egentligen är konst. Men som så ofta annars blir frågan närmast en kring moral och samhällsresursslöseri när vi talar om konstfack-studenten som spelar psyksjuk. Så även i förmiddags då jag på TV4 hör Björn Ranelids kommentarer kring fallet:

”Vad-är-konst?” Malou von Sivers ställer frågan i Efter Tios sändning denna förmiddag (repris från 19/2). Gert Fylking får kramp i låret och flyger upp ur stolen. Han har fastnat i mattan. Obekvämt värre. Diskussionen tar dock form och Christer Lindarw finner det läskigt med relationen konst och media: ”När det blir upphaussat då blir det värt nånting”. Gert Fylking drar det vidare genom att markera skillnaden mellan eget finansierad konst å ena sidan och av samhällsresurser finansierad konst å andra sidan. Konst på andras bekostnad, blir en annan distinktion av Ranelid. Gert Fylking hävdar trots allt att “Absolut måste konsten skapa uppmärksamhet och ett intresse hos folk”. Är det en konstens uppgift eller det som särskiljer konst från icke-konst, undrar jag?

Eller bidrar jag bara till att överanalysera konsten? Blir konsten bättre eller rent utav tråkigare till följd av våra dissekerande diskussioner just nu? Det förstnämnda en möjlighet, det sistnämnda en risk. Samtidigt finner jag det upplyftande att den svenska konsten har lämnat normalpositionen där man kritiserar det övriga samhället för att för tillfället befinna sig i en självgranskande situation. Mitt i allt tvistande och ifrågasättande är det hur som helst gott med en röst, eller ord inristade på en dörr, som påminner om enkelheten. Som kärleken till konsten. Let’s not make it too complicated to simply love art. I do. Don’t you?

Tidigare diskussioner om konstbegreppet finns länkade [här].

creative industries - debating the concept

‘Creative Industries’ as a concept was created some ten years ago in the UK – currently spreading throughout Europe. It is, furthermore, probably the most used concept in the field of cultural economy. Is it a good and feasible term – or do we use it in lack of something better?

Chrissie Tiller sheds light on its problematic nature by sharing a recent experience which made her create a new Facebook group: “I decided to establish this group after downloading a brochure for a conference, lead by Creative and Cultural skills entitled "Supporting the Creative Industries". You can download it yourself at http://www.neilstewartassociates.com/se228 (although be quick because once I pointed out their choice of a cover with pictures of 6 white male speakers (no women no ethnicity) and 3 white males named as additional speakers they have decided to rectify their "oversight"!!)”

“The group is set up to challenge the need for those working in the arts, culture and creativity to embrace the concept of their being an "industry" when all this seems to mean is replicating an outmoded, discredited, white male dominated model of working.” That was actually the best argument I ever heard against the concept, and I decided to join in the discussion. The Facebook group is called “Let's stop calling it the CREATIVE INDUSTRIES” and you can find it here: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=693526808&ref=name#/group.php?gid=56898298978&ref=mf

This is my first contribution to the debate:

"Thanks Chrissie for initiating the discussion. New times and new ways of doing things, in general require new vocabulary. Maybe it is because the concept ‘creative industries’ per se puts cultural activities into old and overplayed frameworks that it doesn’t get the support in the rest of Europe, as it has gotten in the UK. This should at least be part of the reason.

The concept is still new and confusing in Sweden. An interesting development, however, is how we have moved from the direct translation ‘kreativa industrier’ to more often choose ‘kreativa näringar’. The word ‘näring’ has a direct reference to business, but its actual meaning is ‘nourishment’, i.e. ‘creative nourishment’. In a way beautiful, but not really sufficient, and most importantly; the word lacks an equivalent in English.

Despite the EU-report from 2006, it is still uncommon knowledge that the turnover of cultural activities within the EU is bigger than the turnover of the car manufacturing industry, as well as bigger than the IT-industry. That is argument enough to create a genuine interest in regional, national and European politics.

Policies, support systems and infrastructure will however not change without qualified knowledge about the form, content and offspring of cultural activities. In my current work to consider new research projects in the area, I’m being very surprised by the lack of European research in the field. Besides more qualified knowledge, we certainly need more collected and accumulated knowledge. A first important step would be to start recognizing these often young and small scale activities, their driving forces and how they actually operate.

Please note how I’ve used the term ‘cultural activities’ four times over – yet another expression for our need of new and suitable vocabulary."

creative taboos: money art

Thus, money can be art. Can art be money?

Talking about money and art in the same context makes me feel like I’m walking on a minefield. Oh, what a harmonious provocation this cherry-blossom is...