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Imagined Site: Rural Contextual Practice


Title of the course: Imagined Site: Rural Contextual Practice
at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Research Station in co-operation with the Bioart Society Residency  

Workshop period: July 18 - July 30, 2024

Period on site in KILPISJÄRVI: July 21 - July 28, 2024

Location: Kilpisjärvi Biological Research Station
Käsivarrentie 14622, 99490 Kilpisjärvi, Finland

Level: MFA and advanced BFA

ECTS: 3-5

Number of participants: 15

Language of instruction: English

Eligible students:
MFA and advanced BFA students at schools within the KUNO network.
In order to participate in the course students need to be enrolled at their university at the time of the course. Exchange students are not allowed to take part.

Host institution: Academy of Fine Arts, Uniarts Helsinki, Finland

Partner institutions:

Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania

Konstfack University College of Arts Crafts and Design, Sweden

Application deadline:  24  March 2024

How to apply: please submit an online application. Selection results will be announced by 28 March 2024.

Course description: Imagined Site is a 12-day  intensive, site-responsive course that takes place at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Research Station (in far northern Finland) and in the participants imaginings of the site. Imagined Site is the third edition of the KUNO intensive course Rural Contextual Practice. This edition is produced in collaboration with the BioArt Society Residency, that has been engaging the Kilpisjärvi station since 2008 through their Bioarctica platform. The course explores issues central to making site-responsive art in rural contexts.

Imagined Site brings together students in an advanced stage of their studies from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, Konstfack University College of Arts Crafts and Design in Stockholm and the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts along with select MFA students from other KUNO schools.

The course will contain presentations and introductions by research scientists, Kilpisjärvi staff and artist members of the BioArts Society, who have conducted art projects at the site. A series of collective exercises will be initiated by each of the facilitating artist teachers. In addition, there will be time for independent exploration of the site, project development, and collective meals. Students will also have an opportunity to share their past practice with the group through a series of short presentations. A temporary public project/proposal, accompanied by a work-in-progress presentation, will be done during the final days on site.

The workshop is funded under the Nordplus/KUNO framework. 

More information on the course and practical arrangements.

Facilitators:
●     Daniel Peltz
Professor of Site and Situation Specific Practice, Department of Time and Space Arts
Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland
https://www.uniarts.fi/en/units/academy-of-fine-arts/
●      Dr. assoc. prof. Vytautas Michelkevičius  
Head of Photography, Animation and Media Art Department and Head of Doctoral Programme in Fine Art, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania
https://www.vda.lt/en/
●      Sissi Westerberg
Senior Lecturer, Smycke & Corpus: Ädellab, Department of Craft
Konstfack University College of Arts Crafts and Design, Stockholm, Sweden https://www.konstfack.se/en/