Positions in the political economy of public art
We will be ending the Research Seminars in Architecture series spring semester 2025 on the 13th of June, with a presentation by Catharina Gabrielsson and Eva Arnqvist. Drawing on their Formas-funded project Positioner: Den offentliga konstens politiska ekonomi, they will screen excerpts from a research-based film and introduce a framework for understanding the conditions of public art in Sweden. Join us for a conversation on art, democracy, and the contradictions of Gestaltad livsmiljö.
Time: Fri 2025-06-13 13.15 - 16.00
Location: Conference Room 6th Floor of the Architecture School Room A608
BIOS
Catharina Gabrielsson is docent in architecture and professor in urban design and urban theory. Her research centres on the relationship between architecture and the city, critically questioning and contextualizing modes of spatial production by juxtaposing aesthetics, politics and economics. Together with colleagues, she has edited several research compilations such as Instituting Worlds: Architecture and Islands (Routledge, 2025) and Neoliberalism on the Ground: Architecture and Transformation from the 1960’s to the Present (Pittsburgh University Press, 2020). With Helena Mattsson, she is at the final stages of preparing a co-written monograph on Swedish postmodernism (Makadam, forthcoming) and a collection of her own essays, Housework (Glänta, forthcoming).
Eva Arnqvist is an artist, researcher, and educator trained in both the arts and political science. Her work spans a wide array of media and practices, focusing on questions related to the production of place, knowledge, and everyday life. She has extensive experience in critical and practice-based urban research and has initiated several collaborative DIY art projects. She is co-founder of the artist studio collective and exhibition space Slakthusateljéerna (Stockholm) and has produced several artist’s books of which her forthcoming Positionsförflyttningar is a critical investigation of the transitioning of Kosta in Småland, from a glassworks community to experience economy. Besides her artistic practice, Arnqvist works as a public art consultant and is a member of the board of the public arts foundation Eva Bonniers Donationsnämnd.