Iceberg works

This project focusses on the research phase for an anthology with the working title Iceberg works which is a collaboration between Sue Bell Yank (researcher and Director of Clockshop in L.A.)  and Maj Hasager (Artist, Professor and head of Malmö Art Academy). The research examines the evolution of socially-engaged art practice, or social practice, as it exists in our current global cultural context - after MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and the Trump presidency in the US, and amongst a rising tide of fascism and anti-immigrant sentiment globally, all against the backdrop of a global pandemic, wars and climate crisis. In the Art Collab context we are zooming in on the art fields relations to human rights issues, precarity and migration. By discussing some of the case studies in different academic fields we aim to broaden the perspective through cross pollination of different discourses between art, humanities and science. 

Participants in the Project 

Maj Hasager is a professor of fine arts and head of the Malmö Art Academy, Lund University. As a visual artist, her artistic approach is research and dialogically-based. She works predominantly with text, sound, video and photography. There is a strong focus on social engagement in her work, and long-term collaborations are key in her artistic research and practice. In recent years, Hasager has used oral history interview techniques as a method for accumulating information related to personal stories, physical sites, and historical and political matters. This approach allows the material to unfold itself through different voices and from different perspectives and functions as a way of mapping an area or a context.

Her work has been exhibited internationally in events and at institutions such as Lunds Konsthall; Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome; Critical Distance, Toronto; GL STRAND, Copenhagen; Galleri Image, Aarhus; Fokus Video Art Festival, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen; Moderna Museet, Malmö; Cleveland Institute of Art; Red Barn Gallery, Belfast; Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdańsk; Liverpool Biennial; Al-Hoash Gallery, Jerusalem; Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah; Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen and Guangzhou Triennial.

Sue Bell Yank is affiliated with UCLA as a former head of Academic Programs at the UCLA Hammer Museum. Her writing has been featured in exhibition catalogues, UCSD’s social practice journal Field, the Liverpool Biennial journal Stages, n.paradoxa feminist journal, Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, the Huffington Post and KCET Artbound. Bell Yank teaches regular courses on socially-engaged art and pedagogy at UCLA and OTIS, and has been a lecturer at California College of the Arts and USC. She is currently the executive director of Clockshop in Los Angeles, which works with artists to deepen the connection between communities and public land. 

The project also include the Profile area Human Rights at Lund University.