PROJECT ÅLIDHEM

As an academy of fine arts we are part of the cultural scene. We train and educate future artists and even while still studying, our students develop international networks and get involved in exhibitions. We are active in many places around the world and offer our students an international perspective. At the same time, we are based in Umeå and it is here we work and are involved locally. Project Ålidhem exemplifies how an academy of fine arts can become engaged in a local context, while at the same time teaching its students how they can work regionally as well as nationally and internationally. The residential district of Ålidhem has shown itself to be a rich and exciting urban milieu and we are grateful for all the inspiring meetings and the constructive criticism we have received.

Project Ålidhem is a research and development project in which we have sought new forms of expression for art in public space. The Umeå Academy of Fine Arts has carried out the project in cooperation with and been supported economically by Umeå municipality. Economic resources have also been contributed by the public real estate companies, Bostaden and Norrvidden.

For a year and a half students, teachers and international guests have embarked upon research and participated in discussions about public art and about Ålidhem’s history and architecture, its origins in the Million Dwelling Programme (1). During the entire project public meetings have been held, presentations and lectures given on site. Ålidhem’s residents’ association, its library and youth club have been important project partners. Parallel with their investigations, the art students involved have developed individual art projects which have been executed on site during the winter and spring of 2008.

The character of an art research and development project is investigative, critically reflective and it should have an open attitude towards its results. For the commissioner, the project means undertaking to create new possibilities for future public artworks. The academy’s responsibility is to broaden the discursive fields so that the art work done in the project can be viewed in a larger international context.

The project’s twelve art works reflect the breadth of contemporary art strategies for enhancing public space: from advertising campaigns in newspapers, new bakery goods, film and book projects, to sculpture, gardens and monumental pieces of art. Some pieces existed for only a short time, others are permanent, but together they offer new experiences of and approaches to reality.

INGO VETTER AND PETER LUNDSTRÖM
PROJECT LEADERS AT UMEÅ ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS

Footnote:

(1) This programme refers to the construction of primarily municipally-managed, multi-family dwellings, completed between 1965-1975.