Cultural Program - CONVIVIAL CULTURES | XI Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture - Tensta Konsthall

A VIRTUAL VISIT TO TENSTA KONSTHALL, STOCKHOLM 

Abstract

The last year we all have been reminded about how extremely important our public rooms are and how precious the right to move around freely in a society is for us all. Also, we have been fighting against the negative consequences of physical distancing, which doesn’t have to be the same thing as social distancing. What happens when libraries, culture houses, museums and art institutions are forced to close? And what happens when people are separated from each other for a longer time period and groups that usually meet must find new ways to stay in touch? In order to get to know more ways in which our immediate public realm in the suburb where we are located could be activated, and how the square outside Tensta konsthall could function as a meeting place, we have reached out to the Swedish organisation Women’s Building Forum, and the artist Bella Rune, based in Stockholm. Together with local partners and guests and our Language Café, the Women’s Café and our ongoing course for young Art Mediators – Agents of Change, we have created a program of openair activities during the summer. During the virtual visit you will meet members of the team at Tensta together with Cecilia Widenheim, director of Tensta konsthall.

Biography - Cecilia Widenheim

Cecilia Widenheim is director of Tensta konsthall. During her time as director of Malmö Konstmuseum (2012-18) she initiated and curated several projects contextualising the collection. She was director of Iaspis 2008-11 and curator, responsible for the Swedish and Nordic collection of paintings and sculptures, at Moderna Museet in Stockholm 1997-2012.  She has curated exhibitions with Ester Almqvist, Mary Kelly, Vera Nilsson, Yoko Ono, Martha Rosler and Cecilia Edefalk a o. She has taught widely since the 1990s and co-edited books such as Society Machine (Garrett Public), Baltic Reflections (Arena), Work, Work, Work – A Reader on Art and Labour (Sternberg), Utopia and Reality – Modernity in Sweden (Yale University Press).