Accelerator is an institution conceived as an exhibition space for contemporary art at the heart of the university, whose markedly experimental character brings together art, science and the approach to social issues through its different programmes and activities. Since its launch in 2019, Richard Julin has been its artistic director, with whom we exchanged impressions on the initiative and on the dialogue between disciplines in his curatorial work.

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ALBERTO AGUILAR: What worries and concerns you about the world around us? You probably address it in Accelerator's artistic proposal. And also… Throughout your career, thanks to which artists and/or projects have you been able to find —and share with the audience— answers to the various challenges of our time? Tell us about some of them, please.

RICHARD JULIN: Intellectual isolation and social fragmentation threaten free speech and the arm’s length principle. The mission of Accelerator is to engage actively with society. The institution has the ambition to contribute towards a transparent and empathetic society by opening up opportunities for art to spark discussions and interdisciplinary dialogue. These are big words that I believe can be put into action both by big and tiny actions. Everything we can do to foster dialogue, not least between those that aren’t inclined to talk to each other, should be done. 

Many artists I’ve worked with have inspired me both professionally and as a person to engage with issues and challenges of various kinds. Tino Sehgal, Pipilotti Rist, Andrea Zittel, Cyprien Gaillard, Ayşe Erkmen, Katharina Grosse, Tal R, Mona Hatoum, Tony Oursler to name a few. In recent years I’ve worked closely with several artists based in Sweden in which the projects, exhibitions, performances, publications have addressed current urgent issues, of which, as we all know, there are many. One example is a large solo exhibition and book with Christine Ödlund that I curated at Magasin III museum for contemporary art. This was an exhibition that in essence had a great tension at its center: the waiting for something we hope for. Once this thing occurs, perhaps quite abstract, it will have consequences. What happens after the sought after hope is fulfilled?

Artist duo Lundahl & Seitl have created and expanded works with me as a curator in projects that have touched issues of perception and the senses that I feel are tied to matters I brought up above. They developed a new work with me as curator called The infinite conversation in which visitors are led by the hand into a pitch-black room where they then drift in and out of conversations held between disembodied voices. 

In relation to your question, regarding answers to the challenges of our time, I see my role as a curator as helping to create situations in which artists can develop their interests in ways that inspire others to feel and think.  As I mentioned earlier, in the best of worlds, the hope is for these situations to be catalysts for dialogue, debate and, who knows, maybe even insights.

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AA: Does the approach and activity of Accelerator question that art and science are autonomous and independent domains? Is science today an open and inclusive space, which seeks out other significances, forms or processes —for example, those developed in the sphere of art— with which to understand our reality? Does Accelerator's public programme based on this premise? Could you elaborate on this, please?

RJ: Accelerator produces exhibitions presenting international and Swedish contemporary art. The artists we invite have no particular relation to science, but are artists that address current urgent issues. In relation to the projects, art works and exhibitions that are developed Accelerator organizes public programs with presentations and talks with artists, researchers, students and the general public. We also ask artists that we invite if they’d like to meet researchers at the university who work with issues that they are concerned with. If they do, we “match” them and they meet. At times the dialogue that usually starts between them becomes a public in various forms. Some of the dialogues have found their way into both the artists and the scientist’s work. 

Accelerator has existed as a physical space for a little over three years at this point. A common thread that has developed is a conversation on experimentation. True experimentation and issues in relation to that come up time and again in our projects and talks. The relation between acquired knowledge, history and future developments. In what conditions do different disciplines experiment? What is “new”? Fear of the new and the clinging to ideas of a past imagined as “safe”. There are many exciting thoughts that occur when artists and scientists meet. At Accelerator art is at the center of what we do in our exhibition spaces, but as I think has become clear by now, the fact that we are situated at the Stockholm university is a golden opportunity to engage with exciting research and researchers. There are around 2000 researchers working at Stockholm university, most of whom work in the humanities.

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AA: In recent years, more and more museums are working with sound to enrich the experience of their visitors. Why is it relevant to build a collective listening space linked to the exhibition? Based on what premises and with what tools do you proceed? How does the aural dimension of Accelerator impact on its audience? Could you illustrate it with one of your projects, please?

RJ: First of all I’d like to underline that one very important aspect of creating the exhibition spaces at Accelerator, with architects 2BK in Stockholm, were the acoustics. A main goal for the spaces was to have an acoustic situation that allows for tours to be able to be given in a good sound environment and for artists to be able to work with sound in the spaces. I feel that we’ve achieved this through focus on sound absorbing materials and particularly an excellent absorbing foam used on strategically chosen surfaces. As for sound as a medium in art I feel that one aspect is the fact that sound is always live, in a sense. No matter what the source, the sound waves hit you, enter you and affect you. 

In both our current exhibitions, Loukia Alavanou’s Oedipus in Search of Colonus and Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Leif Elggren’s The Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland present Världsutställningen, World Expo, Exposition Universelle 2023, sound plays important roles. As a visitor at Accelerator you enter through a dark tunnel into a sound absorbing dome where you can experience Alavanou’s work Oedipus in Search of Colonus. It uses VR technology and directional 3D sound recordings to transport the viewer to a Greek shanty town making it the scene for a modern version of Sophocles’ ancient drama. The town, Nea Zoi, situated close to the original Colonus, is populated by Romani who in the film take on the different roles in the play. In the tunnel, a directional 13 channel sound design made out of fragments from recordings  in the Romani community of Nea Zoi, becomes the first trigger for the visitors in the space, before they are guided to their seats and eventually immersed into the film. 

The other exhibition, The Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland present World Expo 2023 has many sound elements to it. For example processed recordings made by NASA transformed into the sound work Communication with Nine Extraterrestrial Bodies, 2023 and a recent version of the micro nation Elgaland-Vargaland's national anthem is played every 30 minutes. Also during the spring of 2023 a number of sound performances take place live in the exhibition.

IV

AA: Let me bring up Merce Cunningham, who considered that chance should mark every encounter between different artistic disciplines. And also Events (1964), the desire to present his choreographies outside a traditional stage space: for instance, in the halls of a museum.

We would like to know why contemporary dance is important in your curatorial work. How do you approach it? What do you find in it: perhaps new discursive forms or situations and another possibility to distribute them? What does it allow you to do and offer? Could you illustrate this with any of your projects, please?

RJ: The opening exhibition of Accelerator in September 2019 was Tino Sehgal with the art work This progress. Although not a dance per se, it is an art work and a practice highly informed by contemporary dance. As I said above, regarding sound being live at every moment, so is movement. I think that the experience of now is important. 

Another recent exhibition at Accelerator that relied almost entirely on dancers was Adèle Essle Zeiss Tyngdspegel where the artist presented a new series of performances comprising three “tyngdspeglar” (“weight mirrors”), in addition to a trio of older works. Each performance that took place several days a week during 9 weeks was unique and influenced by numerous factors, most importantly the interaction in the group of dancers performing. Each individual’s interpretation of the choreographic instructions affected the movements of the others and how the work unfolded at that precise moment. 

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AA: And as a corollary: Should curatorial action be performative? Through curatorial practice, could the mechanisms of social and political relations in the institutional context of art be changed?

RJ: I’d like to repeat the ”big words” I started out with in our conversation: that I believe sparking discussions and interdisciplinary dialogue can change society and be put into action both by big and tiny actions. If by “curatorial action” you mean the practice of curating, my view is that it’s performative. There are possibly as many definitions of “curating” as there are curators. The word “performative” is also understood in many different ways. But curating is in my view an action with an audience in mind. An action that hopes for reactions. It is a social and political action. The energy that the projects I’ve initiated and made happen together with a whole range of people, including artists, change things. I believe that is often a good thing. 

RICHARD JULIN is the artistic director of Accelerator at Stockholm university, with over twenty years of experience in curating art exhibitions and contemporary art events of all sorts, foremost performances. In exhibition making a focus on producing new art works together with artists and making exhibitions with and around these new creations. Has extensive experience in dealing with new situations, leading processes of experimental character and creating new institutions. Enjoys sharing experiences made working with artists by teaching on curating art courses and giving lectures at various types of venues. Has edited a number of books together with contemporary artists in which the focus has often been conversations with the artists on their visions, creations and life views.

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