In 2014, Rejmyre Art LAB’s Nordic/Baltic Studio for Continued Engagement gathered a group of recently graduated MFA students from across the Nordic and Baltic Art academies for a 10-day intensive workshop Everything you want was already here: an exploration of site-dependent making.
Together we investigated the constitution of rural places such as our site, as places often characterized as abundant in certain resources and lacking in others. We coupled this investigation with a parallel consideration of how a focus on abundance and lack might be used to reflect on this transitional moment for the participants (all recent graduates of Nordic and Baltic MFA programs) from the academy to constructing one’s own contexts for making and learning.
Everything you want was already here is a workshop aimed at young professional practitioners within the fields of art and design from the Nordic and Baltic countries – a platform for those who want to build networks and continue engaging in discussion, exchange, and critical reflection on their practice after completing their higher education. The participants become part of Rejmyre Art LAB’s newly established network, the Nordic Network for Continued Engagement, which seeks to foster exchange and collaboration among young practitioners from the Nordic and Baltic countries.
Over the course of ten days, the group gathered in Rejmyre for an intensive workshop led by American artist Daniel Peltz (multidisciplinary artist and professor at the Rhode Island School of Design). The studio consisted of collaborative exercises and discussions, individual work, presentations, and critique. The focus was on discussing the participants’ artistic practices from the different artistic directions and cultural perspectives represented within the group. As the group was composed of participants from various disciplines and countries, they had the opportunity to expand their thinking through new perspectives.
Part of the time was also devoted to discussing theoretical texts from the different countries, which the participants were assigned to read and present to the group. We also discussed socio-political issues around democracy, social responsibility, revolution, and the artist’s role in society. Beyond this overarching framework, the participants were encouraged to use the studio as a democratic platform, actively shaping its structure and content themselves. Alongside the workshop, a month-long artist residency with international artists from around the world was also taking place, which created further opportunities for exchange with more established colleagues.
This post-MFA workshop was open to practitioners from both visual art and craft educations from a select group of Nordic and Baltic art schools. Activities of our post-MFA workshops include a combination of individual and collaborative exercises, work presentations, peer critique and living together in community.
Participants had recently completed their MFA degree at The Royal Institute of Art, Sweden, Konstfack, Sweden, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Denmark, Bergen Academy of the Arts, Norway, the Icelandic Academy of the Arts, Iceland, the Academy of Fine Arts [KUVA], Finland, Vilnius Academy of the Arts, Lithuania, the Art Academy of Latvia and the Estonian Academy of the Arts. Participants were selected by nomination from our network of professorial colleagues and through an open call.