Maj Hasager, rector at Malmö Art Academy, will be installed as Professor of Fine Arts at a ceremony in the University House auditorium on October 18th. In addition to her role as rector, Hasager is active as an international artist, focusing on moving images and photography in the social sphere. In connection to the installation as professor, we took the opportunity to ask her a few questions.
How does your new role as professor feel?
I was appointed as professor last year, so the role doesn’t feel that new anymore, but that’s only positive.
Tell us more about your research!
My research is deeply rooted in an artistic practice as a visual artist, within the area of socially engaged art, where relational interactions and a dialogical approach to art-making form the core of the artistic process. In a socially engaged art practice, the development of the relationship between the artist and a community or different individuals, or the exchange of ideas and stories, often becomes a central element of the finished artworks. I am interested in the interdisciplinary field between pedagogy, art, and social engagement.
This work is a long-term commitment to people and places and adopts a visual approach, similar to documentary work, predominantly using text, sound, video, installation, and photography. I am currently conducting a large-scale global research project in collaboration with the curator Sue Bell Yank, based in Los Angeles, on community engagement and social practices. This will result in a book that examines the development of socially engaged art practice, or social practice, as it exists in our current global cultural context—after MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and Trump’s presidency in the USA, amidst a rising wave of fascism and anti-immigrant sentiment globally, all set against the backdrop of a global pandemic, war, and climate crisis. The book is intended for both practitioners and commissioning institutions, to contextualise how and why working artists approach a practice that encompasses engagement in dialogical research, relationship-building, community co-creation, and social and political transformation, and to meaningfully explore the role of social art practice in today’s world.
You’ve worked quite a bit on the project Att lyssna till staden (in english: Listening to the City) in Lund; could you tell us a little about that?
Att lyssna till staden is a public artwork created by me as a visual artist and the composer Ask Kæreby.
The project has been ongoing since January 2022. Through workshops, the Lund Cultural School's chamber orchestra has developed and refined their skills in listening, capturing, and recreating the city’s sounds. This has resulted in a joint composition, where the area’s other sounds were explored and interpreted in interaction with the orchestra's acoustic instruments. In June 2022, a performance took place with the composition in Klostergården's paddling pool. The orchestra was able to weave together fragments of real sounds from the neighbourhood with the instruments’ interpretations of similar sounds in an organic and modern way, a far cry from traditional orchestral music. The work will become a film in Klostergården's library, a sculpture by the paddling pool, and a sound walk.
The public artwork Att lyssna till staden is developed together with the residents of Klostergården and in collaboration with the Lund Cultural School and Lund Art Hall.
Read more about Att lyssna till staden here.
Besides the professor installation, what’s current in your professional life right now?
Right now, I’m finishing the public artwork Att lyssna till staden in Klostergården, Lund, and working on the book about socially engaged art practice, or social practice, together with the LA-based curator Sue Bell Yank, which involves interviews with practitioners in the global field.
Thank you, Maj Hasager!
Visit Lund University's website for more details about the professor installation.