In the temporary art project Skolarbete/Schoolwork, artist Loulou Cherinet, in collaboration with the Faculty of Social Sciences at Lund University, the Public Art Agency and Akademiska Hus, invites Lund residents, students and university employees to improvise together.
With their hands in clay, straw and cow dung, participants explore how knowledge can be shaped and shared physically, relationally and with the body as a tool. This will take place during two construction sessions in the autumn of 2025. The project is part of the development of the Paradis Quarter in Lund and an investment in Art on Campus.
The starting point for the joint clay construction is a number of images that Loulou Cherinet had AI generate from research projects, course syllabi and literature lists that are shared on the university’s website. The images function as templates open to the participants’ interpretation when they are transformed into physical structures in the Paradis Quarter.
Cherinet describes the project as an investigation into collective improvisation:
– I have been fascinated by the relationship between planning and improvisation for jazz musicians like Ornette Coleman. In "Schoolwork" I try to portray a kind of friction between the predetermined and the unpredictable, a place where the logic of automation is confronted with collective, bodily and material practices. I am curious about what can take shape in the space between image and action when people gather in the Paradis Quarter to build together.
Schoolwork takes place in the midst of current discussions about how algorithms and automation affect knowledge creation and creative processes, especially in academia, where free thought is often conveyed through code, systems and rules.
The Paradis Quarter, where the project takes place, is an open garden and park environment in the heart of Lund. Here, students and teachers mingle with the city’s residents in a vibrant university area that connects Lundagård with Helgonabacken, the University Library and Skissernas Museum (Museum of Sketches).
Temporary art projects in collaboration with Akademiska Hus
Temporary projects result in artworks that are exhibited for a shorter period of time and create new opportunities for everyone involved. Through the temporary works, new methods, new technology and new ideas about what public art can be can be tested. The processes are faster but the designs are, just like with permanent works, site-specific. During 2025, the Public Art Agency is working on the visibility of art on campus areas through temporary art projects in collaboration with Akademiska Hus.