HDK-Valand awarded the Swedish Research Council’s grant to centres of excellence

On 21 June, it was announced that HDK-Valand was one of the research environments awarded grants in the Swedish Research Council's excellence initiative for a centre of excellence in artistic research for art and political performance. The Swedish Research Council selected a total of 15 centres of excellence from 124 applications. The researchers in this centre will investigate how artistic practice shapes how the political field is imagined and represented today.
 

“This means a lot for our entire activity, a centre of excellence in artistic research enriches and creates conditions for our entire knowledge environment where education should be based on research, artistic development work and proven experience. Our researchers and research have once again received confirmation of the ability to conduct research at the highest level," says Klara Björk, Head of Department at HDK-Valand.

Centre of excellence in artistic research
The researchers behind the application from HDK-Valand are project leader Professor Mick Wilson and co-researcher Professor Jyoti Mistry. The research environment will be a collaboration between HDK-Valand and the Royal Institute of Art and will establish a centre of excellence for artistic research - something Sweden has previously lacked.

"It is very exciting to be part of a collaboration with colleagues at the Royal Institute of Art and it feels very important that we cooperate nationally to build up the artistic research sector," says Mick Wilson.

Each research environment will be allocated SEK 4-6 million Swedish kronor per year for five years, and the plan is to allow for a further five years of funding after evaluation. The funds will go to long-term programme activities where researchers from different disciplines come together around a theme or issue. A centre for research and education activities will be built around this. Compared to previous excellence initiatives, there is now greater focus on the thematic idea and organization.

The application describes the need for a research environment where material research processes and bibliographic research practices in the arts can meet. The researchers see the concept of "the political imaginary" as the most productive area for such an encounter as it focuses on the important social role that art can play in an intense, disruptive, and radical global transformation.