Das Stockholm-Syndrom

Das Stockholm-Syndrom

Grafikskolan Final Show at Atelierhof Kreuzberg in Berlin.

A lot of people in other countries think of the Stockholm syndrome when they hear of Stockholm. The Stockholm syndrome is a psychological condition where hostages take their captors’ side against the police. The syndrome is named after a historical hostage drama in connection with an attempted bank robbery in Stockholm in 1973.

The title does not imply that students at Grafikskolan feel like prisoners – or that they always agree with their tutors, but builds on the associations that Stockholm triggers abroad. In Sweden, we sometimes refer to “the Berlin Syndrome”, a jokey name for how Berlin attracts young artists.

For many years, Grafikskolan have done study trips to Berlin, and a contact has been established with Atelierhof Kreuzberg. Now the graduating students have been invited to exhibit at the premises and will gain a unique experience of international collaboration.

The 17 graduating students present work through various forms of expression: a three cubic metre installation consisting of a thousand screen printed cubes, a Kalashnikov sculpted from crochet lace cloth, movements transferred to print and video, twenty portraits of wolves, and a pornographic book in Braille, just to mention a few examples.

The artists Leif Elggren and Andreas Ribbung have served as a sounding board for the exhibitors, and have made the exhibition preparations an integrated part of the course for the first year students.

Grafikskolan – College of Printmaking Arts in Stockholm is the only art school in the Nordic countries to focus on the artistic
printmaking techniques: intaglio, stencil, relief, planographic. Today the school has 29 students in two different programs of study: Artists’ Books, and Printmaking (foundation course). The school was founded in 1984 and is now located in Hammarby Sjöstad, a part of Stockholm where an old industrial area meets a brand new seafront neighbourhood.