Björkö Konstnod

WAP24 June Edition Lead walker and co-curator: John Schuerman is an environmental artist and independent curator. His artwork reflects his deep interest in nature both human and nonhuman. His aesthetic style and social consciousness formed as he grew up on a dairy farm in southern Wisconsin. His primary art practices are Walking and Drawing, which he uses to examine his community’s physical and psychic landscapes. As a curator he’s produced over 30 exhibitions across the Midwest on topics that address current concerns in our collective psyche.

WAP24 September Edition Lead walker and co-curator: Antonia Aitken based in lutruwita /Tasmania, Australia since 2014. Through a combination of field research and studio based practice my work is investigating social and environmental questions about how we engage with and interpret our relationships with place in a contemporary Australian context. How do we explore the complex and entangled imprint of settler colonialism and attempt to build ethical dialogue with the land and its communities

The walking scene in Sweden is in the forming or resurfacing. The purpose with this process-based program is to invite (inter)national artists to further this development together with a core-group connected to Björkö Konstnod/BKN. WAP methodology of fieldworks and share sessions are carried out to locate and entangle structures, narratives and forces via the intersection of the arts and walking.

The curatorial framework opens up for participating artists to influence the direction and leaned towards new materialism, ie rethinking dualisms through a non-hierarchal approach. Reviewing the development (share sessions, walks, and work made available to public), ”Spaces of Anticipation” is the theme for WAP24. We also foresee that after WAP24 the platform could continue to focus on aspects of artistic research at the cusp of walking and the arts. In 2023 the focus was on "Attentive Walking"

WALKING AS PRACTICE/WAP is a process-based art residency, where we delve into each others’ knowledges and things we encounter together on Burch island/Björkö

Interventions weave across different registers of time and site. The focus is on how walking is interlocked in our practices. Fieldworks and seminars are jointly done to locate and entangle structures, narratives and forces. We believe in a safe and friendly attitude as part of the art scene we share.

BKN fosters a peer-based environment: “thinking together, learning together” - a resource and semi public forum to explore and experiment. Jointly, we form a transformative, dynamic space for art that engages with life and nature towards critical and poetic explorations, influenced by the immediate surroundings; the forest, lakes, sea and people living in the rural area.

Program dissemination will be in an online format and a series of open studios/walks as engagement with the local community.

Keywords: walking, asymmetry, entanglement, beyond violence, not-knowing, desire, nature, responsibility, deep listening, close seeing, territory, contested sites

WAP Curators and instigators Hallberg and Skånberg have been following each other's practice since 2005. In 2022, they decided to start working together in addition to their separate practices. At BKN they are sharing studio. BKN is the site for WAP23 and WAP24 >>> .
WAP25 might also take place on Björkö or perhaps a new location.
The configuration of a transformative, dynamic space for art engaging with life and nature towards critical and poetic explorations, influenced by the immediate surroundings where the forest meets the sea, way-finding at BKN in The Northern Stockholm Archipelago, Sweden.
EXPOSITIONS
WAP24 @ RESEARCH CATALOGUE >>>
WAP23 @ RESEARCH CATALOGUE >>>