Of Public Interest (OPI) Lab is a one-year international course for professional practitioners in art, architecture, and related fields, especially those interested in, or working with, visual and spatial practices. Working with practice-based thinking and making, we experiment with artistic strategies and language in our common spaces – beyond commissions. This methodology becomes a way of insisting that artistic language and voices play an active role in critically rethinking the values our society is built on, taking part in proposing alternative imaginaries and narratives.
We meet every four weeks at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm for a session of 5 days, with intensive programming that includes practice-based work, developing working methodologies, workshops, lectures, seminars, site visits, group discussions and coaching.
Theme and content
Each year we take a starting point in the development of a certain area in Stockholm, treated as a case-study. These studies are all rooted in a long-term commitment to a site in Stockholm where a completely new district will emerge during the coming 10 years. Here the participants of OPI Lab explore how we as practitioners – with local engagement and with the help of experimental interdisciplinary artistic methods – can contribute to a reinterpretation of the area, its public life and the future development.
Everyone contributes in their own way, approaching from their own practice and with their own sensibilities. We work in small interdisciplinary teams of 4-5 people. OPI Lab participants should be interested in working with others to create and develop new projects in an experimental and interdisciplinary setting through peer-to-peer learning and unlearning.
Read more about the course on Royal Institute of Art
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