On 28 February, Open Art Lund officially kickstarted its month-long joint exhibition with a festive opening at Kino. The collaboration is an initiative of three local galleries, meant to inject new life into the city’s cultural and artistic scene.
As the city is slowly settling into darkness, a vibrant hum can be heard from Kino’s bistro. People are clinking glasses, shaking hands, and exchanging introductions, and the crowd is a happy mix of artists, benefactors and visitors. Everyone has gathered to rejoice in the opening of Open Art Lund: A month-long joint exhibition with a lively and diversified cultural programme at its core. The initiative, pioneered by Gallery Cozmo, Studio Bantorget and Kliger Gallery brings new artistic life to Lund, and means to establish a new cultural tradition within the city.
While March marks the beginning of Spring and, with that, the commencement of a livelier time of year, the remnants of the winter slumber linger: Temperatures are only gradually increasing and the transition into a new, brighter season progresses slowly. The city’s action-packed cultural programme doesn’t properly kick off until the warmer months and, as a result, March is a quiet month in terms of culture and entertainment.
Cathrine Olsson (Gallery Cozmo), Marco Pusterla (Studio Bantorget), Asaf Kliger (Kliger Gallery), and project leader Gabriella Pedrazi saw the relatively blank slate of March as the perfect time for a new, recurring cultural programme. Initiatives like Open Art Lund not only provide the city’s residents with new cultural possibilities, but also establish Lund as a cultural hub for those that are only visiting temporarily. Anders Almgren, chairman of the Lund municipal board, points out how Open Art acts as a junction between the the local art scene, and the city’s cultural sector:
– Here, high-quality artistic work is combined with opportunities for those strolling around the city, and we’re doing it in collaboration with many different parties.
The project was born after the galleries’ owners came together to collaborate on an initiative that would not only inject new cultural life into the city’s quiet and colder months, but also to establish new regional opportunities for artists to exhibit their work. The demand for local platforms for both new and established artists proved high: The jury received a staggering 700 artists’ applications to review, much to the surprise of the organisers.
– We didn’t know exactly how wide we could reach out, and how many people would be interested in sending their artworks, and then how many would visit the vernissage [the exhibition opening, ed. note]. And I must say that both those parts delivered more than what was expected. First we were expecting between 100 and 300 artists to send artworks. We got 700, and more than 2000, almost 2500 artworks, says Marco Pusterla of Studio Bantorget.
Out of all the applications, 25 artists were carefully selected to exhibit their works across the three respective galleries. The project hosts an impressive mixed-media oeuvre: From paintings, sculptures and installations to projections and short films, it has successfully managed to display the artistic diversity present in the area. Exhibition opportunities, especially for emerging artists, can be few and far between, projects aimed at highlighting the work of newer artists therefore play a crucial role in keeping local cultural sectors from bleeding out.
importance of creative events for new artists.
Photo: Marin Cima
– When a young artist is selected in a jury it gives them a lot of self-confidence, and that confidence can stay with them for a long time. I know this because I was one of them. Very often, when young artists send emails to galleries, they don’t receive any reply. That’s why Open Art Lund is such a great platform for them, Asaf Kliger says.
Opportunities such as these can then play crucial roles in the early stages of an artist’s career. Marco Pusterla of Studio Bantorget explains:
– So that’s also part of Open Art, and these events. And then suddenly, after half a year, you get an e-mail saying: ‘Oh, you don’t know what this has meant for me’.
The project aims to be more than the sum of its parts, transforming cultural spaces into hubs and establishing a network with the artists at the center of it. This network is supported by the cultural programme that lies at the core of Open Art Lund. In addition to the exhibition, people are invited to actively engage with art through life-drawing sessions and other activities hosted throughout the upcoming weeks.
While the city’s student body may largely find entertainment outside the local cultural bubble, the project’s focus on interactive elements beyond the exhibition presents this group with various ways to engage with local cultural institutions. Open Art Lund’s exhibition programme emancipates art beyond gallery doors, and an opportunity to actively participate in the processes of making and creating. Cathrine Olsson explains:
– And I think that is one of the tasks of art, to create meetings and get people to talk. And that could lead to opportunities that you didn’t even know about before.
And for Asaf Kliger, that’s precisely what initiatives like Open Art Lund are for:
– I don’t expect every visitor to fully understand everything about the exhibition. I’m still learning myself. Art is a never-ending process of learning and discovery. But at least I hope the audience will feel something that touches them, opens their imagination, and speaks to their mind and soul.
*Open Art Lund runs until March 28th. The selected artworks can be admired at Gallery Cozmo, Kliger Gallery and Studio Bantorget. Student discounts are available for some of the events.
