Janna Holmstedt

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| >resumé
 

Janna Holmstedt
Born in Göteborg, Sweden. Lives in Stockholm.

Resumé
Janna Holmstedt is a Swedish artist and researcher, based in Stockholm. She is part of the research group The Posthumanities Hub (KTH Royal Institute of Technology/Linköping University), where she is also appointed Artistic Director. She investigates listening as a situated practice, the cultivation of care and environmental attention, and composition in the expanded field of genre-disobedient art practices. Her work includes sound-based installations, participatory performances, mixed media walks, storytelling, mappings, writing, growing, and collaborative projects. She holds a Ph.D. in Fine Arts in Visual Arts from Umeå University and Lund University, Sweden. In her doctoral thesis, Are You Ready for a Wet Live-In? Explorations into Listening (Lund University, 2017) she has explored sonic ecologies, ocean life, and sound technology. Here, dolphins became companion species on a journey through which anthropocentric wordlings could be unlearned and restoried. The work departed from the unique archival material of American neurophysiologist John C. Lilly, who in the 1950s and 1960s, conducted controversial experiments with dolphins. Her current research revolves around the "voice" of the more-than-human, soil as collaborator and living environment, interspecies communication, maize as companion, and (im)possible multispecies futures.

She has been invited to international Artists-in-Residence programs such as Kunst:raum Sylt Quelle in Germany, HIAP and Sumu in Finland, NIFCA in Estonia, Bemis Center in USA, and TCG Nordica in China. She has received two-year work stipend and project grants from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee, travel grants from IASPIS, and project grants from Framtidens kultur, Swedish Film Institute, and the Swedish Arts Council. Most recently, Holmstedt's work has been presented in exhibitions, festivals and talks at Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, Netherlands, the Scandinavian Center, Jingdezhen, China, Public Art Agency Sweden and Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Intonal Exprimental Music Festival and Inter Arts Center, Malmö, amongst others. Previous participation in exhibitions includes for example Documenta Magazine Project in Kassel; Rhizome.org ArtBase, New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York; Weld, Tensta konsthall, Kulturhuset and Färgfabriken in Stockholm; Bildmuseet in Umeå; Botkyrka konsthall; Röda Sten in Göteborg; Marabouparken in Sundbyberg; Rooseum in Malmö. She has written texts for journal and magazines in Sweden and abroad, such as Glänta, Paletten, Chto delat?, Estonian Art, Unlikely, and Leonardo Music Journal, and contributed to books and international conferences. She has initiated, headed, and participated in long term transdisciplinary projects as well as international artists’ collaborations.

Education
Degrees

2017 Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Arts in Visual Arts, Malmö Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts, Lund University, in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts, Umeå University, Sweden
2004 Master of Arts in Fine Arts, Academy of Fine Arts, Umeå University, Sweden
1993 Theatre Set Design, Nordic Academy of Set Design, Skellefteå, Sweden
Courses

2018 Citizen science, Climate research, University of Dundee and GROW Observatory (Horizon 2020). The syllabus contains: climate monitoring; earth observation; fieldwork; global challenges for soil; landscape ecosystems; regenerative techniques; design strategies for moving from insights from datasets to positive change making; communicating complex scientific concepts and data, and more.
2002 Practical Philosophy, Umeå University, Sweden
1999 Theoretical Philosophy, Gothenburg University, Sweden

Awards, Grants, and Artist-in-Residence
2019-2020 Two-year working grant, Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Visual Arts Fund
2019 Ljudtornet Artist-in-Residence, Gnesta, Sweden
2018 Fylkingen, Artist-in-Residence, Stockholm, Sweden
2018 Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Visual Arts Fund, project grant
2012 The Swedish Film Institute
2011 The Swedish Arts Council and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
2010 The Swedish Arts Council
2010 The City of Stockholm
2010 Framtidens kultur
2010 HIAP, Artist-in-Residence, Helsinki, Finland
2009 Sumu, Artist-in-Residence, Turku, Finland
2009 Kunst:raum sylt quelle, work and residence grant, Germany
2009-2010 Two-year working grant, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee
2008 Nordic Culture Point, project grant
2007 Foundation Helge Ax:son Johnson’s Stiftelse
2007 Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Artist-in-Residence, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
2006 IASPIS (International Artist Studio Program In Stockholm), International exchange
2005 NIFCA (Nordic Institute for Contemporary Arts), Sleipnir, travel grant
2005 Foundation Helge Ax:son Johnson’s Stiftelse
2005 Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Visual Arts Fund, project grant
2004 NIFCA, Nordic Artist-in-Residence, Tallinn, Estonia
2004 Nominated to Diesel New Art Award
2004 J C Kempes Minnesfond

Represented

2012 Municipality of Nacka, Sweden
2008 Statens Konstråd / The National Public Art Council Sweden
2007 Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
2007 Rhizome.org ArtBase, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
2006 Traveling Magazine Table (TMT), initiated by Nomads & Residents [Bikvanderpol and Cesare Pietrousti]
2005 Collaborative Practice Archive, Shedhalle, Zürich, Switzerland

Publications and Conference Presentations
[Please, see writing]

Commissions of Trust
The Posthumanities Hub
Affiliated researcher since 2018, part of the core research team since 2019, appointed Artistic Director 2020. The Posthumanities Hub is at the forefront of feminist posthumanist research in the Nordic countries, and functions as an international platform for enacting, networking, and hosting research in postdisciplinary arts and sciences. Research at the Posthumanities Hub specialize in the more-than-human condition and inventive feminist materialist philosophies. This entails work in environmental humanities and other postdisciplinary areas. The Posthumanities Hub consists of a core research team, a diverse group of affiliated researchers, and an advisory board of prominent researchers such as Karen Barad, Rosi Braidotti, Donna Haraway, Nina Lykke, Cary Wolf, Matthew Fuller, amongst others. Founder and director: Prof. Cecilia Åsberg (KTH, LiU), co-director: Dr. Marietta Radomska (LiU), artistic director: Dr. Janna Holmstedt (KTH).

Fylkingen
Fylkingen is an international venue and organization for experimental art and music in Stockholm. Elected member of the production group at Fylkingen 2017-2018. The production group is responsible for the Fylkingen productions and co-productions, which apart from curating and producing also includes administrative work such as applications, budgets, planning and reporting. Fylkingen member since 2014.

Teaching and Supervisor
Teaching and guest lecturer at KTH Royal Institute of Technology; Carl Malmstensskolan, Linköping University, Lidingö; Linnaeus University in Kalmar and Växjö; Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, Umeå University; The Royal Art Academy, Stockhlol; and Yunnan Arts Institute, Kunming, China; and Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño, Universidad nacional, San Juan, Argentina.
Guest critic at the School of Architecture, The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (KTH), Sweden; Photography & Digital Arts, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
External opponent at Stockholm University of the Art and Umeå University. Supervisor at Linnaeus University , Växjö, Sweden.

Theatre

Since 1992 I have made stage design and costumes for more than 20 productions, mostly in Sweden, for Uppsala stadsteater, Malmö Musikteater, Angeredsteatern, Musikteaterverket, among others.