Exploring our inventiveness by taking interactive tours of artistic and cultural hubs in East Skåne.
Protopia looks at ways artists and creatives in East Skåne live and produce their work, frequently through unconventional means that speak to future modes of living. This is an experience that might benefit everyone, not just artists.
This is the 4th Triennal set in South Sweden under the Kulturföreningen Triennal. There are already 20 artists and creatives who want to take part. We have the support of Ystad Konstmuseum, Sjöbo Konsthall, Tomelilla Konsthall and Northern Exposure/Kåseholm Slott, and are talking to other institutions.
(above, example) Gunnel Pettersson & Momiyama have shared facilities for decades. Gunnel creates work around the ancient cultural and social cultivation of buckwheat. Momiyama works with worn, patched garments using the old Japanese mending technique sashiko in a contemporary way.
“Over the decade I have been here, I have met numerous artists and creatives in the landscape, all of whom have amazing ways to live and create. It struck me that these ways of living are exactly what the general public would find inspiring. That these lives are a model for a future of society. A protopia…”
Marek Walczak
(above, example) Gylleboverket create social sculpture in a former scrapyard. They use the impromptu spaces of the yard for installations, movies, workshops, kitchen, permaculture, performances…
The primary activity is a Protopia Bus Tour. These ‘tours’ would take place at weekends between June and August, 2025. They would start at a cultural center and visit about 3 locations per tour. To get a ticket, the traveler fills in a form, which includes an idea of their protopia.
As we visit each place, we develop a dialog with the traveler. The Tour Guide develops the narrative that connects the stops on the bus tour. This narrative includes the traveler’s, and their active participation in their future. The ‘stops’ are not a tour by an artist of their studio, but rather each stop involves the traveler in the artist’s work. Whether picking potatoes at a farm and discussing the art of farming, or designing with a ceramicist the forms for a meal at a restaurant – the traveler immerses themselves in a potential future.
These experiences will be collected on a website with a ‘link-tree’ algorithm that shows the relationships of the various futures to each other, creating a ‘map’ of possibilities that will become a book ‘An artist handbook’.
Triennal is a cultural event held every three years in the south of Sweden. Each Triennal features a completely different format, sometimes including installations, performances and events. The first two iterations were in Kulturmöllan in Lövestad, a small village in Skåne, the third event took place in an open field in suburban Malmö. The work is contextual, that is, it responds to and is made for its location in the landscape. Previous exhibitions include:
Agrikultura
Instrument
Shadow & Light
The Triennal is organized by Kulturföreningen Triennal, an artists’ collective that has created three previous Triennals in southern Sweden with artists from Scandinavia, Europe and the United States.
Contact us: marek@triennal.se
Protopia is a state that is better today than yesterday, although it might be only a little better.