Monuments in our Daily Lives

On September 24, at 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.0, the Public Art Agency Sweden, Stockholm University, and the network The Everyday Life of Urban Monuments are hosting two lectures followed by a discussion, as part the network’s workshop series on the theme. The seminar takes place at the venue of Public Art Agency on the island of Skeppsholmen in Stockholm. It is also a continuation of the long-term work of Public Art Agency Sweden to stimulate, make visible and disseminate research and studies that delve into topics related to the role of art in society, public art as cultural heritage and the role of art in collective memory creation.

Programme

• 4.00 – 7.00 pm Exhibition Make it Grow – Textile as Public Art. On September 24th Statens konstråd/Public Art Agency Sweden’s venue is open to public . Please make the most of your visit, come early and combing the seminar with also visiting the newly opened exhibition Make it Grow – Textile as Public Art beforehand, on the same occasion (on the 5th floor and the entrance floor, in the same room as the symposium, Studion).
• 4:45 pm The doors to the symposium open to the public.
• 5.00 pm Introduction by Tanja Schult, Stockholm University, and Annika Enqvist, Public Art Agency Sweden.
•  5.10 pm Lecture by Tim Cole: Who decides what to do with a contested monument? Engaging the City in a Conversation about the Statue of Edward Colston.

After the toppling of the Colston statue in Bristol in June 2020, the Mayor set up a History Commission to engage the city in a conversation about the future of this contested monument as well as the wider history of Bristol. The Commission – which Tim chaired – co-produced a temporary display of the statue with curators of the city’s social history M-Shed Museum and undertook a survey with visitors and people across the city. Around 14,000 responded and their thoughts informed the proposals for what to do next with the statue, as it enters into the permanent exhibition of the city’s museum. Throughout, the Commission sought to pay as much attention to process as the final outcome – seeing value in the process of engaging a city in a conversation about its past, present and future.

• 5.50 pm Lecture by Annemarie de Wildt: The Complexities of Curating and Commissioning Art in Public Space – The Role of Stadscuratorium Amsterdam.

Stadscuratorium Amsterdam provides Amsterdam’s municipal executive with solicited and unsolicited advice on art in the public realm. Collectively, its nine members cover a wide range of knowledge, from art and spatial planning to the management of works of art in public space. Together, they form a network of expertise that constantly questions the meaning and definition of art in the public domain.

• 6.30 pm Panel discussion 

The conversation is guided by questions from the audience. It is led by moderator Fanny Söderbäck.

Contributors

• Lecturer Tim Cole is a Professor of Social History at the University of Bristol. He is currently working with Tanja Schult (Stockholm University) on a project on the role of monuments in contemporary democracies.
• Lecturer Annemarie de Wildt is a historian and emeritus curator of the Amsterdam Museum and a member of the Stadscuratorium Amsterdam for public art.
• Moderator Fanny Söderbäck, Associate Professor of philosophy at Södertörn University. She currently researches themes such as feminist philosophy, body, birth, time, narrative, memory, violence, and vulnerability.

Organisers

Stockholm University, through Tanja Schult, and the research network The Everyday Life of Urban Monuments – in collaboration with Public Art Agency Sweden, through Annika Enqvist.

A Two-Day Conference Open for All

The symposium is part of a two-day conference that starts already the day before. The full programme for the two-day conference can be found here>

Anyone interested is very welcome to participate. Specific registration required: tanja.schult@arthistory.su.se

On the Network

The Everyday Life of Urban Monuments network is led by Jakob Ingemann Parby (Museum of Copenhagen) and Tanja Schult (Stockholm University).

Read more about the network here>

On Public Art Agency Sweden’s Public Programmes on memorials and cultural heritage

The symposium is part of a series of public activities on the theme of art, memory, and cultural heritages. In November 2023, Public Art Agency Sweden organised the conference Public Memory – Monuments and Difficult Heritages, as a collaboration with researcher Rebecka Katz Thor. The Public Art Agency Sweden has also published the anthology Public Memory, Public Art: Reflections on Monuments and Memorial Art Today (ed. Enqvist, Modig, Katz Thor & Zawieja, Art&Theory and Public Art Agency Sweden/Statens konstråd, 2022) and produced an interview-based podcast, which is published in the digital app Public Art Agency’s Audioguide (Statens konstråds audioguide), available in English and Swedish. This symposium is a continuation of the public programme activities on memory work.

Since 2022 Public Art Agency Sweden is building a new line of public programmes, discursive conferences, and seminars, as well as new formats mediating public art. In these, we develop themes, formats, and programmes in relation to current societal and cultural issues – providing opportunities for mutual learning, and a broad dissemination of knowledge around public art.