Release: Konstnären

Please join for a presentation of the new issue of the magazine Konstnären, with a reading by artist and writer Dimen Abdulla.

Konstnären has become one of the country’s most controversial art magazines, focusing on the artistic debate and cultural politics instead of exhibition reviews. Scrutinizing contemporary visual culture, it is a forum for discussion and exploration of contemporary cultural production and working conditions in the art world. Konstnären is published by KRO/KIF, the association of professional artists and designers in Sweden.

Konstnären No. 2/2016 includes a portrait by Sara Abdollahi of the glass artist Asa Jungnelius about surfaces and presenting art in the window of a luxury department store, essays and statements about public art collections of the state, regional and city councils: who decides and how is decided which art is good enough?, and a visit to Mexico, where artists have the ability to pay tax with artworks: In this way, the Mexican government has since 1957 built up a priceless national art collection with over 7.000 works of artists including Diego Rivera and Leonora Carrington. Earlier this spring, Syrian artist and curator Issa Touma arrived in Gävle, the first city of refuge in the ICORN programme which specifically recieves visual artists. But Touma refuses to abandon his hometown, Aleppo: “The role of the artist becomes even more clear and important in a war zone.” Britt Ignell Karlbrand debates the future of arts policy: “There must be opportunities for the individual artist to make a living.”

Contributors to the new issue include Dimen Abdulla, Sara Abdollahi, Oscar Carlson, Robert Stasinski, Ida Therén, Olle Niklasson, Margareta Bloom Sandebäck, Sofia Curman, Geska Brečević, and Britt Ignell Karlbrand.

Dimen Abdulla studied painting at the Kungl. Konsthögskolan and recently received a degree at Stockholms Dramatiska Högskola. In spring 2015 she showed her first theater work Revolution, directed by Malin Axelsson at ung scen/öst. She has also written for Riksteatern and Folkteatern in Gävle. Dimen Abdulla is currently working as a playwright for Dramaten, Stockholms Stadsteater, and Folkteatern in Gothenburg, among others. She is also working as a playwright for Radioteatern.