Lobby. Knowledge Exchange and Communication on Refugee Reception and Integration through Exhibition and Dialogue
The current refugee situation pose a challenge to research, to municipalities and civil society organisations for a humane refugee reception. There is a need for new solutions and often local government officials, social workers, and refugees themselves have the most important knowledge. Hence, all can benefit from the creation of a space for mutual exchange of knowledge and best practices on integration. Also important is the communication with the public to counter worry, xenophobic responses and racism.
This communication project will pursue this goal through the production of exhibitions and conversations in the exhibition space. Two different exhibition traditions will be employed, which need separate “framing”. Collaborations with contemporary artists, nationally and internationally, will be initiated to raise relevant issues of migration and refuge, with or against the grain of the dominant currents in public debate. More direct research disseminating exhibitions will also be created and this require a more stringet approach to scientific facts, corroborated claims, and a clear sender. Particular focus will lie on the problems and possibilities of municipalities in refugee reception.
The work will be led by the project manager, Erik Berggren together with a scientific council and different participants from municipalities, civil society, artists and refugee groups.
Final report
Project: Lobby. Exchange of knowledge and communication about refugee reception and integration through exhibitions and dialogue Com 17-1278: 1
The purpose of this communication project was to convey and communicate research and knowledge about the consequences of refugee policy in Europe and Sweden today, through exhibitions and conversations in an and around the exhibition space.
In terms of target groups, there were several significant groups that the project wanted to reach; the general public and prospective students, who could be captured by an exhibition space on the border between Campus and the surrounding city, the students on Campus who had the opportunity to see a current societal issue articulated and problematized in a different way than in the literature they encounter and, finally, researchers who contributed material artistically and scientifically and also was a recipient to be inspired by visual and aesthetic ways of addressing and wrestling with issues of migration and refugee status.
The project has been a success from several perspectives, a number of internationally renowned artists have been involved. For example: Paula Urbano, Behnam Sadighi, Abir Boukhari, Muhammad Ali, Cecilia Parsberg, Erik Pauser, Haval Murad and David Martinez Escobar; Maria Backman and Hanna Sjöberg. In addition, researchers at LiU and several students, such as Nedzad Mesic and Lars Christer Hydén, Celina Ortega and Renzo Arcuri, have also participated as they have the knowledge and ability to artistically shape their experiences from research, studies and solidarity work. This has given an interesting mix of exhibitions created by artists, students and researchers, with different qualities. An important selection principle, however, has been aesthetic quality and pregnancy. Lobby has sought strong artistic contributions to make visible, problematize and challenge our general understanding and research's understanding of the refugee question.
The project has also consistently involved student groups in the work of building, informing and creating side events. In the media, this communication project has reached out well with regular coverage of new exhibitions and the issues they raise in the media, radio, local TV, daily press in Östergötland. The project also received special attention in “Universitetsläraren”, SULF's magazine, when they focused on the meeting between art and research and highlighted five projects in Sweden: "Art and science fertilize each other", (2018-09-24) https: // university teacher. se / 2018/09/24 / art-and-science-fertilize-each other /
An important part of the project was to create conversations related to the exhibition project, which took place through performance lectures for master students on the International MA program “Ethnic and Migration Studies”, with conversations in connection with the opening of exhibitions and sometimes with special events such as the Asylum Committee 2017 at Linköping University or when REMESO – The Institute for Research on Migration Ethnicity and Society, LiU, arranged conferences, for example the international research conference with the network Nordic Migration Research - "New (Im) mobilities: Migration and Race in the Era of Authoritarianism", 2018 .
Of course, the project was affected in part by the pandemic. It was extended, but when Campus partially closed down, exhibitions and seminars on Campus became a challenge. However, we met this by moving out during the autumn of 2020 and in October Erik Pauser's (etc.) work - film sculpture - A Place in Europé, was placed outside the University Entrance. This gave an even stronger media impact and simplified the meeting with the surrounding society and the general public.
Experiences and lessons learned
Exhibition projects should be given start time to, build up and find their audiences. Therefore, a project involving exhibitions must not have too short a term. Lobby has been realized thanks to good cooperation with the Real Estate department and the Communication department at Linköping University and with Akademiska Hus. Support has been received in the form of space, technical assistance and communication support on the web and in newsletters. This is essential. But depending on how the web work is managed and works, some things could be strengthened here, with even more visibility on the web and in social media, which now largely falls to the project manager to initiate and create.
https://liu.se/artikel/lobby
Engaging teachers and researchers in seminars that go beyond the regular workload in teaching is always a challenge and depends on contacts and persuasiveness… here may be needed grants that also provide committed teachers with compensation for the efforts they make.
The balance between local activities on and around the Campus and the local environment on one hand, and impact in a wider circle nationally and internationally, on the other, depends to a large extent on the size and number of participants in the project who can receive time and salary. At a time when digital exhibitions and seminars have exploded, the local impact remains, a bit paradoxically, the most crucial. The competition on the web is great nowadays. But this is not really a disadvantage. And, the local and physical exhibition, gain much larger interest as something than can go “viral” and reach out further, through media, social media and to give substantial elements to spread digitally. So the combination is key.
Exhibitions on Campus create interest in the surrounding city and among students in a number of different programs and courses for current social and research issues. This is hardly something that can me measured precisely. The number of people who take part in exhibitions which, in this case, are created in an open space, and, rather than conveying exact research knowledge, raise and problematize issues that might form the basis for research and public debate, inspire students to a course, can hardly be broken down to exact numbers. But media attention and sampling suggest that a large number, mostly students and researchers, have taken part in the exhibitions and seminars. One conclusion is that the location of an exhibition space is very important to reach further into the local community and this in turn depends on where the university's campus is located. Norrköping has a unique advantage in that it´s Campus is located in the middle of the city.
The relationship between research and art has been in focus in this project and an advantage has been that it has not been defined as part of the emerging field of artistic research, which strives for and sometimes realizes, a more consistent synthesis of artistic practice and research. Instead, Lobby has defined this relationship as dialectical, a meeting between art and research where both spheres can promote and challenge each other, but should not be understood as a synthetic mix. This has provided a clearer and more comprehensible meeting, between different forms of knowledge and artistic expression.
Erik Berggren
University teacher and Research coordinator
Linköping University
31/3 2021
The purpose of this communication project was to convey and communicate research and knowledge about the consequences of refugee policy in Europe and Sweden today, through exhibitions and conversations in an and around the exhibition space.
In terms of target groups, there were several significant groups that the project wanted to reach; the general public and prospective students, who could be captured by an exhibition space on the border between Campus and the surrounding city, the students on Campus who had the opportunity to see a current societal issue articulated and problematized in a different way than in the literature they encounter and, finally, researchers who contributed material artistically and scientifically and also was a recipient to be inspired by visual and aesthetic ways of addressing and wrestling with issues of migration and refugee status.
The project has been a success from several perspectives, a number of internationally renowned artists have been involved. For example: Paula Urbano, Behnam Sadighi, Abir Boukhari, Muhammad Ali, Cecilia Parsberg, Erik Pauser, Haval Murad and David Martinez Escobar; Maria Backman and Hanna Sjöberg. In addition, researchers at LiU and several students, such as Nedzad Mesic and Lars Christer Hydén, Celina Ortega and Renzo Arcuri, have also participated as they have the knowledge and ability to artistically shape their experiences from research, studies and solidarity work. This has given an interesting mix of exhibitions created by artists, students and researchers, with different qualities. An important selection principle, however, has been aesthetic quality and pregnancy. Lobby has sought strong artistic contributions to make visible, problematize and challenge our general understanding and research's understanding of the refugee question.
The project has also consistently involved student groups in the work of building, informing and creating side events. In the media, this communication project has reached out well with regular coverage of new exhibitions and the issues they raise in the media, radio, local TV, daily press in Östergötland. The project also received special attention in “Universitetsläraren”, SULF's magazine, when they focused on the meeting between art and research and highlighted five projects in Sweden: "Art and science fertilize each other", (2018-09-24) https: // university teacher. se / 2018/09/24 / art-and-science-fertilize-each other /
An important part of the project was to create conversations related to the exhibition project, which took place through performance lectures for master students on the International MA program “Ethnic and Migration Studies”, with conversations in connection with the opening of exhibitions and sometimes with special events such as the Asylum Committee 2017 at Linköping University or when REMESO – The Institute for Research on Migration Ethnicity and Society, LiU, arranged conferences, for example the international research conference with the network Nordic Migration Research - "New (Im) mobilities: Migration and Race in the Era of Authoritarianism", 2018 .
Of course, the project was affected in part by the pandemic. It was extended, but when Campus partially closed down, exhibitions and seminars on Campus became a challenge. However, we met this by moving out during the autumn of 2020 and in October Erik Pauser's (etc.) work - film sculpture - A Place in Europé, was placed outside the University Entrance. This gave an even stronger media impact and simplified the meeting with the surrounding society and the general public.
Experiences and lessons learned
Exhibition projects should be given start time to, build up and find their audiences. Therefore, a project involving exhibitions must not have too short a term. Lobby has been realized thanks to good cooperation with the Real Estate department and the Communication department at Linköping University and with Akademiska Hus. Support has been received in the form of space, technical assistance and communication support on the web and in newsletters. This is essential. But depending on how the web work is managed and works, some things could be strengthened here, with even more visibility on the web and in social media, which now largely falls to the project manager to initiate and create.
https://liu.se/artikel/lobby
Engaging teachers and researchers in seminars that go beyond the regular workload in teaching is always a challenge and depends on contacts and persuasiveness… here may be needed grants that also provide committed teachers with compensation for the efforts they make.
The balance between local activities on and around the Campus and the local environment on one hand, and impact in a wider circle nationally and internationally, on the other, depends to a large extent on the size and number of participants in the project who can receive time and salary. At a time when digital exhibitions and seminars have exploded, the local impact remains, a bit paradoxically, the most crucial. The competition on the web is great nowadays. But this is not really a disadvantage. And, the local and physical exhibition, gain much larger interest as something than can go “viral” and reach out further, through media, social media and to give substantial elements to spread digitally. So the combination is key.
Exhibitions on Campus create interest in the surrounding city and among students in a number of different programs and courses for current social and research issues. This is hardly something that can me measured precisely. The number of people who take part in exhibitions which, in this case, are created in an open space, and, rather than conveying exact research knowledge, raise and problematize issues that might form the basis for research and public debate, inspire students to a course, can hardly be broken down to exact numbers. But media attention and sampling suggest that a large number, mostly students and researchers, have taken part in the exhibitions and seminars. One conclusion is that the location of an exhibition space is very important to reach further into the local community and this in turn depends on where the university's campus is located. Norrköping has a unique advantage in that it´s Campus is located in the middle of the city.
The relationship between research and art has been in focus in this project and an advantage has been that it has not been defined as part of the emerging field of artistic research, which strives for and sometimes realizes, a more consistent synthesis of artistic practice and research. Instead, Lobby has defined this relationship as dialectical, a meeting between art and research where both spheres can promote and challenge each other, but should not be understood as a synthetic mix. This has provided a clearer and more comprehensible meeting, between different forms of knowledge and artistic expression.
Erik Berggren
University teacher and Research coordinator
Linköping University
31/3 2021