Artistic research

How does artistic research engage with the concept of local? In what ways can art practice be an intervention into traditional notions of history and culture? How does it engage with local and global identities? This book raises questions about transient art practices and site-specific works within communities, as well as art and research based experiences localized in urban and rural spaces, within the body and memory.

Being There is a wide-ranging anthology that demonstrates the field of artistic research has never been stronger. The essays and meditations are by visual artists, writers, performers, filmmakers, historians, sound artists, and activists who have worked together in the Nordic Summer University and who share a desire to unite their creative practices with critical enquiry. Their contributions were generated within twice-yearly symposia that moved between Nordic and Baltic countries over a three year cycle of practice-based research.

Some contributions are enigmatic meditations on place, whilst others, paradoxically, address the question of what is local through the notion of the nomadic. Whether describing quests of individual artists, or relating to collective endeavours, these works are engaged with the spaces in between. Each offers the reader a thoughtful encounter with the aesthetic, and the political, within a myriad of art practices across a rapidly evolving Europe.