Copenhagen
Konstfack, the Stockholm-based University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, has started legal vetting of students’ work proposed for graduation exhibitions, following heavy criticism from politicians and the public. So far one student has been banned from presenting a video piece in the current graduating show, which opened last month. Magdalena Nordin was forced to withdraw her work, Paris Hilton—Nothing in This World (Remix Sextape). In the piece, Nordin has mixed one of US celebrity Paris Hilton’s music videos with the infamous sex tape, “One Night in Paris”. “Our legal expert said that the student did not comply with copyright legislation,” Olof Glemme, head of the fine arts department, told The Art Newspaper. “We therefore had to prohibit her from showing the work.”
The institution has come under a large degree of scrutiny over the past five months. In January, Konstfack student Anna Odell staged an attempted suicide in an elaborate performance piece. She was taken to hospital by police, where she received treatment after behaving violently and erratically. The next day she revealed that she had faked the episode in order to get material for her art school project. She has been asked to pay for the cost of the medical treatment, but has been allowed to show her work at the graduation exhibition. Another student showed a video piece documenting himself spraying graffiti on a train. The film was also shown at Market, the Stockholm contemporary art fair, in February, where it was seen by the minister of culture, who stated that it should not be considered a work of art. Since then Sweden has been embroiled in an ongoing debate about freedom of expression, art and public funding.
The university now plans to tighten its ethical guidelines and look more carefully at students’ work by establishing an ethical commission. “It is by no means our intention to investigate each student’s work, but when in doubt legal expertise shall be sought,” said Mr Glemme.
“Many students are concerned that works are now judged by a lawyer,” Erik Helsten, a spokesman for the university’s student organisation, told The Art Newspaper. It is understandable, he said, that a state institution has to be sure that everything is in compliance with the law, but is wary of the danger of heavy-handed censorship. However, Mr Helsten welcomed the plan to establish a commission that will set up clear guidelines for the school.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as ‘Legal vetting of graduation shows raises spectre of censorship'