Maria Lind is a Swedish curator, writer and educator, currently serving as the counsellor of culture at the Embassy of Sweden in Moscow. Her recent book, Konstringar: Vad gör samtidskonsten? [What does contemporary art do?] was published earlier this year. Together with artist Andjeas Ejiksson, Lind will curate Bildmuseet’s upcoming exhibition The TV Springboard: From Children’s Programmes to Contemporary Art and Literature, produced by Bildmuseet and Kalmar Art Museum.
In her contribution to Bildmuseet’s anniversary forum, Maria Lind will discuss contemporary art as a form of understanding, a tool for relating to existence. It can, like a sponge, suck up everything around it, she argues. It is a mirror where we see ourselves from new angles and a knife that can cut through existence and ask difficult, unexpected questions.
Maria Lind was previously director of Stockholm’s Tensta Konsthall, the artistic director of the 11th Gwangju Biennale, and the director of Iaspis in Stockholm. In 2015 she curated Future Light for the first Vienna Biennial, and in 2019 she co-curated the Art Encounters Biennial in Rumania. Lind has taught extensively since the early 1990s, including at the Art Academy in Oslo, Konstfack in Stockholm and at Bard College, Annandale-On-Hudson. She has contributed to newspapers, magazines, catalogues, books and other publications.
Welcome by the director of Bildmuseet and host of the anniversary forum What Do We Need Art For?.
Artist Katarina Pirak Sikku gives a personal account of art’s significance for herself and people around her.
Professor Gavin Butt considers the history of "art-pop" music and the world-making capacities of art today.
Dramatist and writer Stina Oscarson talks about the importance of art in reminding us that we are human.
Artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah answers the posed question in conversation with director Katarina Pierre.
South African photographer Cedric Nunn talks about the context in which he is a politically active artist.
Curator Maria Lind on contemporary art as a form of understanding and tool for relating to existence.
Musicians Sofia Jannok and Dennis Lyxzén on what art and culture have meant in their lives.
Curator Tone Olaf Nielsen discusses artistic and curatorial responses to the refugee crisis.
Artist Jumana Emil Abboud performs a reading about walking in the Palestinian landscape.
Artist Mats Caldeborg reflects on the significance of art and the human ability for abstract thinking.
Artist Grada Kilomba gives her answer to the question posed in a conversation with director Katarina Pierre.
Curator and director Antonia Alampi addresses the multifaceted roles that art and cultural practices play.
As his contribution to the online forum, Naeem Mohaimen shows us the new film work Against Regret (23 min).
