YOUMEÅ is the title of this year’s graduation exhibition at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts. After five years of studying, the art students display their projects at Bildmuseet. Participating artists: Erik Berggren, Mats Bergqvist, Anna Jin Hwa Borstam, Jakob Eklund, Emma Hartman, Evaanna Hertov, Kamilla Levring, Marie Magnusson, Helena Morland, Robert Pörschke, Nina Svensson and Johan Äijä. Curators: Maria Lind and Robert Stasinski.
The techniques and expressions range from drawing, painting and sculpture, to video and audio installations and a computer game. The artworks deal with such diverse themes as communication, networks, touch, togetherness, violence and power games, exploring the central perspective, and the significance of trotting racing in Sweden today.
Together with the students, this year’s guest coordinators – Director of IASPIS Maria Lind and freelance curator Robert Stasinski – have discussed the function, strengths and weaknesses of the group exhibition, and the transition from the collective existence of the student to the reality of the individual artist. What does it mean for an individual artist to exhibit their art in a collective context? The philosophical paradox of the ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ has provided the backdrop for the exhibition. Drawn from economic theory on interactions between different individuals, the dilemma highlights the difficulty of assessing situations according to whether one acts in the best interests of the collective or the individual.
In the exhibition, the theme of the individual and the collective appears in several of the students’ works: Anna Jin Hwa Borstam creates a collective work of art by holding a drawing competition for all graduating students, while Jacob Eklund’s photographs depict a longing for togetherness and Helena Morland’s sound installation features interwoven individual voices. Some of the students also try to break free from the collective by showing parts of their projects in locations other than Bildmuseet.
The exhibition includes a catalogue with presentations of the students’ works and texts relating to the artists’ themes.
