By Christoph Draeger, Professor at Umeå Academy of Fine
Arts
and main instructor at the Master's programme in Fine
Arts.
"This year's exhibition by graduate students from the Master's
programme at the Academy of Fine Arts at Umeå University was
entitled Tools For The Future. Sadly, it had to be canceled due to
the corona virus health crisis. The exhibition title refers to a
critical yet constructive questioning of societal values in times
of heightened insecurity and to possibilities to not only question
their definition, but develop an idiosyncratic repertoire to
interact with contemporary currents through artistic expression.
Our societies are facing unpreceded political and cultural
challenges, at present with the pandemic, and will continue to do
more so in the near future coping with the consequences and
fallouts of climate change.
Students who are choosing Umeå Academy of Fine Art often
highlight the tightly woven net of interaction and communication
within the academy, and the existence of a supportive environment
that springs from this small emphatic community. In this
laboratory, students are developing fine-tuned tools to get into
closer contact with what is surrounding us, to be able to give an
account about what we see, how we puzzle it together, what
conclusions we draw. This process-based approach results in ways of
heightened self-reflection, as well as a deepening reflection on
our environment, micro- and macro cosmos.
The exhibition may have disappeared but the results of the
artistic practice and research of 12 promising artists exist, and
will be seen: Firstly, during the examinations, which will still
take place 'live' in a solo-exhibition setting with the student and
the professor present, and with the online participation of the
whole class, the external examiner Maria Lind and guests from the
faculty and students of Umeå Academy of Fine Art. Secondly,
on the Art Academy's website, where all the graduation projects
will be presented and archived. Thirdly, in a printed catalogue
that stubbornly and proudly keeps the title of the exhibition that
never was: Tools For The Future
The online presentation and the catalogue will feature works by
Mikaela Crantz, Martin Eltermann, Henrik Haukeland, Irina Laaja,
Viktor Mattsson, Line Gry Neivelt, Johanna Robleto, Eleanor
Shipway, Richard Guy Slatter, Mathijs Van Sark, Per Westerlund, and
Josefine Östlund. Their main instructor is artist Christoph
Draeger, Professor at the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts.
Tools For The Future is the culmination of five years of study
in Fine Arts, whereas two years in the Master's programme, and
displays a wide range of ideas, techniques and forms of expression.
The Master programme at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts is an
international program that prepares students for professional art
practice. Challenged to devise methods of experimentation and a
significant understanding of historical and contemporary context,
students develop an informed artistic practice, specific to their
intentions and sensibilities.
The students are working within and across the areas of various
media and topics in a curriculum that is designed to promote the
depth of individualistic artistic expression, as well as
collaborative interdisciplinary thinking. Despite the closing of
the university, the academy was able to get an exemption for
graduating students, so they could continue using their studios and
the school's workshops in order to finalize their projects. As our
education is foremost practice-based, this proved to be an
invaluable silver lining for this year's graduates.
As I write this, we are all affected by this worldwide pandemic,
and many a future is in limbo. Bertold Brecht said: «In the dark
times, will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing.
About the dark times». Thankfully, we are not there yet, and none
of the students' project are directly reflective of the current
crisis as in most cases, they have been developed over the duration
of two semesters. It is to hope that the tools they acquired in
their Master will help them navigate a future that seems
increasingly uncertain and difficult. This crisis may be a mere
dress-rehearsal for things and times to come that humanity is
ill-prepared for. Now and in the future, we have to insist that
societies are not only protecting their economies and people's
wellbeing, but also what makes us human: our culture."
