- Petra Hultman (Sweden)
CO:LAB PLATFORM is an initiative by artist in residency at the the “Art Commune” (ACSL), Petra Hultman (Sweden). Being actively interested in the community-based art practices, Hultman established the CO:LAB Platform as a long-term participatory run platform, open studio, and continuous workshop. The core idea of the platform is the “Sewing Circle” as a planned structure within the whole CO:LAB structure in collaboration with Women Resources Centre and ACSL in Armenia. The “Sewing Circle” focused on the communal work and regular forum for important conversations, discussions, research, actions, making art and feminist statement in society. The CO:LAB Platform established a wider dialogue on feminism, queerness, and gender through art and activism. Furthermore, mirror exhibitions are planner in Armenia and Sweden for 2015 entitled ‘Let us talk about it’.
The key vision of the project is to create a long-term platform for collaboration and exchange between Armenia and Sweden for artists, cultural workers, and activist working with issues concerning feminism, queerness, and gender. As a first step, organizers want to create two mirroring exhibitions and/or events happening in both countries at the same time. Those will be related to the D.I.Y. bar located in Yerevan which was bombed in a hate crime after the lesbian owner of the bar appeared on the national TV speaking about her participation in the pride parade in Turkey.
Petra Hultman is a Sweden-based artist and a student at Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, 5-year university program in fine arts (Ba-Ma). She uses her previous background of a project coordinator when working with a socially engaged practice where she, through collaboration, involvement, dialogue, workshops, and provocation, interacts with society. Using both new and traditional techniques, Petra is exploring different forms of participation and creative procedures, as well as structures for collective and collaborative practices. Her work is usually process-oriented and, as a mixed media artist, she has a broad range of practices including animation, installation, video, performance, photography, sculpture, and text-based works. Her fields of interest include gender-related structures, as well as construction of memories and their relation to documentation, psychology, human relations, and group-dynamics.
