Sites, sounds and screens - new approaches to sites, locality and technology in public art

  
It is with great pleasure that KØS presents the project Sites, sounds and screens – new approaches to sites, locality and technology in public art in collaboration with curator Christian Skovbjerg Jensen. 
 
What does it mean for public art that we can see, hear and connect with places we were previously completely cut off from? That we in immersive experiences can disappear into parallel or virtual realities or be transported to other locations, bodies or times? Or that we with greater ease can distort and manipulate our experience and understanding of real sites and situations in media such as AR or VR?
 
This new research based exhibition project will examine how new technologies have changed the ways we experience and engage with places and it will explore how we through new technologies can renegotiate existing site specific approaches to art in the public domain.  
 
Sites, sounds and screens extends over three years and is launched with an open call, and continued as a seminar and a continuation of the Swedish artist duo Lundahl & Seitl and the design studio Untold Gardens’ participatory AR performance Unknown Cloud Forming that took place in October 2021. Sites, sounds and screens ends in 2024 with a publication, symposia and exhibition at KØS and it will include several public events during the three year period.
 
See the video from the performance here:

This first seminar is called Sitespecific and participatory Augmented Reality and to debate these issues we invited a range of prominent researchers and artists from the field: Researcher Tanya Toft Ag, artist duo Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas, artist duo Gibson & Martelli (Ruth Gibson & Bruno Martelli) og artist duo Lundahl & Seitl (Christer Lundahl & Martina Seitl) and the design studio Untold Garden.
   
The Open Call is realized in collaboration with Inter Arts Center (IAC) in Malmö and is called Public Immersion. 
 
When we talk about immersion, we tend to imagine an auditive or visual immersion into a world that excludes our surroundings, which is exactly what the public is all about – other people, and the spaces or sites that surround and connect us. We encourage artists whose practice evolves around public space, extended reality, world building and/or immersive technologies to apply for this open call with new bold projects or adaptations of existing works.

The open call has enden and the winner has been announced: Alona Rodeh with the project ‘Night as other frontier or The Well-Being of The Nocturnal City’.

Sites, sounds and screens will continue in the coming years with several talks and seminars held in Sweden and Denmark, among others, accompanied by the launch of a number of new and existing public art projects, which will be exhibited at KØS in 2024.

Inter Arts Center (IAC) is a platform for artistic research and experimentation, and part of the Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts at Lund University. It acts as a meeting place and a work space for researchers and artists from various disciplines and backgrounds, who use the facilities for short or long term projects. IAC also offers several residency programmes in cooperation with partner institutions. Read more about IAC here.
 
Christian Skovbjerg Jensen is the director of Inter Arts Center and a freelance curator. He has organized and curated a wide range of public art projects, such as Sid Ned! (2006) and TUMULT (2010). Later he was one of the curators of the 6th Momentum Biennial (2011) and last year he curated the 2nd edition of Struer Tracks.
 
Sites, sounds, and screens is a collaboration between KØS and a wide range of international partners. The project is curated by IAC director Christian Skovbjerg Jensen in collaboration with director Ulrikke Neergaard. 
 
This project is supported by:
 

Det Obelske Familiefond supported KØS’ curatorial programme 2019-2021

Photo: Unknown Cloud Forming, Lundahl & Seitl og Untold Gardens
Photo by Sarlongkiri Ingti (Lee Eh Kiri)