HDK VALAND MFA GRADUATION SHOW 2022 "MATERIAL GLITCH" 📷

Saturday, April 9, 2022 1:00 PM 13:00
Saturday, April 30, 2022 5:00 PM 17:00

Göteborgs Konsthall, Sverige Götaplatsen 7 Västra Götalands län, 412 56 Sweden (map)

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Elin Alvemark, Unknowing Orchestrations, 2022. Amanda Hellryd, Forever can spare a minute, 2022. Foto: David Eng.

Press release, April 2022

Göteborgs Konsthall continues its long-running tradition of presenting the master students of HDK-Valand’s MFA Fine Art programme.

After a 2 year break owing to the pandemic, we are pleased to present the students from HDK-Valand’s Fine Art MFA and their exhibition project here at Göteborgs Konsthall.

The eight graduating students take the temperature of a society to which we are now trying to return, searching for a normality that has been so far out of reach. Material Glitch raises a thought, as the title suggests, that something is wrong with the very structure of existence; that a hidden problem affects the fabric of society. A ‘glitch’ is a problem that usually occurs in electronic systems, when defective software produces incorrect signals. Characteristically, everything seems normal, until suddenly, a bug appears, even just for a fraction of a second, and then disappears again. A glitch is therefore usually difficult to detect, and the underlying system error will remain until it’s fixed. In the exhibition, the works on display can be seen as diagnoses of the contemporary moment. The students’ artistic explorations have been developed as individual experiments, but have also been influenced by their joint conversations.

Kamilla Mez, Nya Konst, 2022. Foto: David Eng.

Jennifer Spångerud, Another Digital User Cluster, 2022. Foto: David Eng.

Jennifer Spångerud, Another Digital User Cluster, 2022. Foto: J. Spångerud.

This is a group that has worked together under extraordinary circumstances. In their exhibition, they examine the difficult relationship between our bodies, desires and perceptions, and the systems and processes that shape our lives, and continue to disappoint us: on the one hand the perpetual unravelling of history, and on the other, a future defined by the expanding domain of technology. What consciousness emerges in this uncertain world, where system failures become the new normal? How do we need to equip ourselves for this state of instability? Bringing the blind spot into vision means asking questions about how we create meaning for ourselves. How can we construct meaningfulness without sacrificing ethical principles? Can a reconsideration of our ‘material glitches’ help us reconsider the complex ways in which we try to make life worth living, not only for ourselves, but also for future generations?

Participating artists: Elin Alvemark, Ali Ardalan, Amanda Hellryd, Maja Lindberg Schwaner, Kamilla Mez, Viktor Moen, Jennifer Spångerud, Anders Walfridson.

Press message by Daniel Jewesbury (university lector) and Liv Stoltz (curator).

Elin Alvemark, Unknowing Orchestrations, 2022. Foto: David Eng.

Amanda Hellryd, Forever can spare a minute, 2022. Foto: David Eng.

Ali Ardalan, How beautiful, trying to blur the border. The border between the possible and the impossible…, 2022. Foto: David Eng.

Ali Ardalan, How beautiful, trying to blur the border. The border between the possible and the impossible…, 2022. Foto: Ali Ardalan.

Exhibition program:

April 9: Vernissage.
April 13: Panel discussion
(Amanda Hellryd, Maja Lindberg Schwaner, Jennifer Spångerud and Victor Moen).
April 20: Panel discussion
(Elin Alvemark, Ali Naghi Ardalan, Kamilla Mez and Anders Walfridson).
April 23: Museum Day in Gothenburg.
Students will tell about their works.
Dates for the Open Workshop Läge, Leka, Lera with Amanda Hellryd:
April 10, April 17, April 23 and April 24.

Vernissage program (9th of April, 2022):

13: Stina Edblom, artistic leader at Göteborgs Konsthall says welcome
13.05: Introduction by Klara Björk, prefekt HDK-Valand, Högskolan för Konst och Design
13.15: The curators of the exhibition, Liv Stoltz, curator at Göteborgs Konsthall and Daniel Jewesbury, University Lector in Fine Art, introduces to the exhibition