[Nayttelyposti] Prognostics: Ulrika Jansson: In search for ARARAT on Wed 2 March

[Kontusalmi Henna]

Prognostics: Ulrika Jansson: In search for ARARAT
Wednesday - 2nd of March - 6 pm to 7 pm - Exhibition Laboratory, Merimiehenkatu 36, Helsinki


Owing to the 40th anniversary of ARARAT – Alternative Research in Architecture, Resources, Art and Technology, an exhibition organized at Moderna Museet in Stockholm 1976, the project In Search for ARARAT<https://insearchforararat.wordpress.com/> is the result of a combination between a historical account and an artistic one. The historical will frame the exhibition within contemporary 1970s Swedish environmental and counterculture movement; the artistic will present an ongoing Nordic interdisciplinary practical and theoretical collaborative work for better understanding of the social and cultural dimensions of ecological transition which has its starting point in ARARAT.

ARARAT featured participatory work involving over 100 people from different fields pursuing research, artistic activity and social change. The exhibition was one of the most popular in the history of Moderna Museet with over 150 000 visitors. The influence from American and British contemporary countercultural movements was highly present in concepts such as systems oriented thinking or the non-modernist integrations of state of the arts technology, architecture, history, arts, crafts or local culture. ARARAT was chosen as the Swedish contribution to the Venice Biennale in 1976 where the exhibition gained much positive attention. However, the exhibition’s direct influence was scarce and many of the main ecological concerns remain as urgent and unsolved as in 1976. That forms the incentive for the current investigations into ARARAT, linking the historical development of interdisciplinary sustainability work in the Nordic countries with the current development of cultural and artistic practices searching for alternative futures.

Ulrika Jansson (b. 1975) is one of the initiators of  the project In search for ARARAT together with Finnish artists and researchers initiative and residency program Mustarinda. Jansson has made historical research on ARARAT and in meetings brought together the original members of ARARAT with a group of people involved in art, architecture and sustainability issues today. The aim has been to create an understanding of what ARARAT was, what we can learn from the project today and how we can develop collaborations between different disciplines relevant to the challenges we face in the contemporary state of societies and culture. During the talk she will present the project and elaborate upon contemporary platforms and methods for interdisciplinary collaborations between artists, researchers and other actors within social-ecological transition.


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Prognostics Lectures continues in Spring 2016

16.3. Lana Čmajčanin
6.4. Lukas Marxt
13.4. Zack Denfeld

Warm welcome!

Henna Kontusalmi
tiedottaja / communications officer
Taideyliopisto / University of the Arts Helsinki
Kuvataideakatemia / Academy of Fine Arts
+358 50 4488 530
henna.kontusalmi at uniarts.fi<mailto:henna.kontusalmi at uniarts.fi>