A finger searches for texture. An ear strains to hear. A lover runs out of words. There is something unnoticed worth pausing at. There is something to leave behind, and something to thirst for. We invite you to brush your skin against us. We want you to hear us. To search for us, from one point to another. Listen for sand lapping. The tension between you and me. The scent of the past. Klumpen i magen, the lump in the stomach. Can you hear? Do you touch?
Welcome to Beröringspunkter, a sensory exhibition that invites you to remember, to listen, and to search with the body rather than with sight. Five artists, working from different practices in scent, sound, sculpture and installation, have made six works with the ambition of drawing visitor and artwork together in an encounter between memory and sense.
Parallel Collective Gallery has created a curatorial method-development project with support from Region Stockholm and in dialogue with the Swedish Association of the Visually Impaired (SRF) and SKKF, the association of visually impaired artists and craftspeople. Research on accessibility in art and museum contexts rarely addresses small venues with limited resources. The aim is therefore to develop and test a curatorial method through which smaller art venues, on limited budgets and in buildings that cannot be rebuilt, can include visitors with visual impairment without compromising artistic quality or curatorial judgement: an art experience that increases accessibility for visitors at large rather than confining it to a particular group.
An audio guide with certified audio description accompanies the exhibition, giving each work its text, artist information and description. The project's method and findings, from material choices and safety to pedagogy and curatorial decisions, are gathered in a digital report shared with other art institutions in the region: the method-development core of the project.
Kays Ismail, one of the exhibition's two curators:
"The exhibition was built for touch from the start, not adapted afterwards. Art does not have to be something you are only allowed to look at. The curiosity comes from Kajsa Frisk and me. We have always wanted to touch the works in galleries, to feel the material and understand how something is made. A lot of galleries feel closed, as if the art were not meant for everyone. That is what we want to change."
You are welcome to approach, touch and explore the works with all your senses. We only ask that you do so with care. Audio description is marked at each work.
Curated by Kays Ismail and Kajsa Frisk.
