UKS Unge Kunstneres Samfund Seminar: Softer Structures and the Social Dimension
Monday 27. september 14:00 - 18:30
Tuesday 28. september 11:00 - 17:00
PRICING & TICKETS:
Tickets for day 1 (Monday 27 September)
Tickets for day 2 (Tuesday 28 September)
Price: We suggest a donation of 50 or 100 kr per day which goes entirely towards covering costs for your warm vegetarian meal.
As a part of UKS’ 100th anniversary program 100 YEARS OF CONVIVIALITY, UKS will host three seminars discussing how to live and work together. On 27 and 28 September UKS travels to Bergen for the first seminar in the series, Softer Structures and the Social Dimension, on mental health and disability access taking place at the cultural institution and production space Bergen Kjøtt.
People suffering from either physical or mental disability—from burnout and depression to chronic illness or physical impairment—make up 20 percent of the world’s population. This number makes it difficult to justify the ongoing ableism that exists in the art world, as well as in too many other spaces. In the wake of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which has made differences in access clearer than ever, this seminar discusses how disability and mental health create barriers for participating in the art world and explores in both concrete and abstract terms how to make our (art)worlds more inclusive.
The seminar brings together art practitioners with experience (lived and acquired) of working across issues of mental health and physical disability, and insists that access to a life in the art world should not be limited to those of us who are able bodied and psychologically robust. The aim is to share tools and best practices for working towards care-full and inclusive environments, as we dream together of how our worlds could be built in ways that are softer and more comfortable.
SPEAKERS & PARTICIPANTS:
— Amber Ablett, artist and writer.
— Daniela Ramos Arias, curator at Hordaland Kunstsenter in Bergen.
— Birgit Bundesen, physician at Psychiatric Center Amager, Denmark and founder of the Association of Art and Mental Health.
— Jussi Koitela, head of programming for Frame Contemporary Art Finland and curator of the program Rehearsing Hospitalities.
— Anna Rieder, poet and second chair of the Association of Art and Mental Health.
— Staci Bu Shea, curator at Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons in Utrecht.
— Mira Thompson, singer and activist.
Full program will be published shortly on UKS website.
ACCESS NOTE:
The seminar will be spoken in English. Please contact m.wistreich@uks.no if you require sign language interpretation.
The seminar will be streamed via UKS' website and on youtube. Youtube provides closed captioning.
Access information for Bergen Kjøtt can be found here: https://www.bergenkjott.org/kontact
There will be ample room for breaks in the program. If you need to move around, rest, twitch, pace, or not make eye contact, know that you are welcome here.
Seating options will vary between chairs and soft seating. We will do our best to provide other seating if requested.
*Image: Siri Hermansen, Time Ecstasy at UKS in 2003