Art & Play

Seminar at Lunds konsthall
April 28, 5–8.30 pm

Participants: Gabriela Burkhalter, Jake Ford, Luca Frei, Elisabeth Millqvist, Sara Backman Prytz, Åsa Nacking and Lena Sjöstrand.

Seminar at Lunds konsthall in collaboration with Wanås Art and Hage/Råängen.

Seminar on playable art, play in art and the changing view on children and childhood. Lectures by city planner and the curator of the exhibition The Playground Project, currently on view at Lunds konsthall, Gabriela Burkhalter, artist Luca Frei and Associate Professor at the Department of Education, Uppsala University, Sara Backman Prytz.

The Seminar also includes panel discussions with the invited speakers as well as with Jake Ford, landscape architect White Architects; Lena Sjöstrand, cathedral chaplain at the Church of Sweden; Elisabeth Millqvist, artistic director Wanås Konst; Åsa Nacking, director of Lunds konsthall

Moderator is curator and artist Hans Carlsson. From 4.30 there will be coffee and a sandwich for sale at the court yard. The seminar will be in English. Registration (maximum 60 ppl.) Pre-booking required: Billetto

The seminar at Lunds konsthall is part of the ongoing Play meets art, a collaboration between Wanås Art, Lund Cathedral/Råängen and Lunds konsthall. The three institutions are currently working on exhibitions and projects that deal with play, urban and landscape planning and art.

On view at Lunds konsthall is the exhibition The Playground Project (5 February–8 May) about 20th century play sculptures, Wanås Art shows an exhibition (5 Mar – 1 May) based on Beatrice Alemagna and Sara Stridsberg's book Let’s go to the park and Lund Chatedral/Råängen is planning a designed play environment, made by the Norwegian-Swedish multidisciplinary design studio Byggstudio, at their project Hage, a public garden built for the new district Råängen in Lund. Because of this the three institutions invite the audience to a number of events during spring. One of these events is the seminar at Lunds konsthall.

Program

17.00–17.10 Welcome greeting

17.10–17.50 Lecture: Gabriela Burkhalter

17.50–18.30 Lecture: Luca Frei

18.30–18.45 PAUS

18.45–19.25 Lecture: Sara Backman Prytz

19.25–19.55 Panel discussion 1

19.55–20.25 Panel discussion 2

Presentation of speaker, lecturers and panel discussions:

Sara Backman Prytz

A century of play: historical perspectives on childhood spaces in 20th century Sweden

Children's play is not timeless. When children play, our changing world is reflected in their actions: they process, imitate and fantasize about things that have affected them. The adult world also controls children's play by setting the framework for children's space for actions. Where should their play take place, for how long, which games are allowed and which toys do children have access to? This lecture presents what children's play and conditions for play have looked like during the 20th century.

Sara Backman Prytz is an associate professor in child and youth studies at Uppsala university. Her research interests include history of childhood, history of education and gender history.

Gabriela Burkhalter

Playfulness in public space: three approaches

How can adults and children connect to the urban environment? The talk presents artworks and play sculptures embedded in the new towns in Scotland from the 1970, artificial landscapes to allow natural play in the 1980s in German towns, and the reconversion of derelict urban infrastructure into play and community space in today Mexico.

Gabriela Burkhalter, based in Basel Switzerland, is an urban planner and the curator of The Playground Project, a travelling show about the history of modern play sculpture, playscapes, building playgrounds and urban (play) activism currently on view at Lunds konsthall.

Luca Frei

Making space for play is making space for memories

Luca Frei reflects upon two projects, Simone Forti's See Saw, from 1960 and re-staged by Frei in 2015, and Working Spacing Moving Resting, a video performance made in collaboration with Majula Drammeh from 2021. Through these two works, Frei will look at the relationship between the movement, the objects, the performers, and the context, as well as their role as a catalyst for new experiences of play, learning and memory.

Luca Frei is an artist living in Malmö, Sweden. His work often contains aspects of pedagogy and play, conveyed in the form of installations that invite participation and dialogue with the public. His practice integrates sculpture, furniture design, performance, exhibition and graphic design. For more info on Frei’s practice and above mentioned works see Lucafrei.info.

Panel discussion 1

Cultural institutions, a children's perspective

With Elisabet Millqvist, Lena Sjöstrand and Åsa Nacking.

How do Lunds konsthall, Wanås konst and Lund Cathedral/Råängen work with questions about play and in what way is the children's perspective included in the activities at the three institutions?

Panel discussion 2

Play as practical knowledge

With Sara Backman Prytz, Gabriela Burkhalter and Luca Frei.

What do play offer in terms of opportunities for understanding the world around us? Does the relationship between man, objects or works of art become something special when this relationship is established through play? Could play even be considered a specific form of practical knowledge?