Open call

The Stockholm County Council’s Culture Administration invites professional artists to apply for three sketch assignments for three separate sites at Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge.

When Huddinge Hospital opened in 1972, public art was an integral part of the whole hospital building. In the spirit of the times, the commissioned artworks were in many cases marked by the artists’ will to communicate; many artists wanted to be involved in the development of society and reach out into new contexts. These three artistic assignments are focused on key areas within hospital wards. The specific healthcare activities in these wards have not yet been decided.

Background

Stockholm County Council is working on renovating and investing in many existing premises at various hospital sites, in order to offer more healthcare facilities and create more single rooms. Wards K61-63 in the K building, and wards B76-78 & B86-88 in the B4 building within Huddinge Hospital area will be renovated. Demolition work has begun and the building work in these wards is scheduled to be completed by April and June 2019.

The artistic commission

The creation of public art for the county’s hospitals is defined by a confidence in the capacity individual patient, and a will to define the patient primarily as a person and not by their illness. Art is of great importance, not just for the aesthetic value it brings to the place but also an expression of a humanistic view of society. At Huddinge Hospital, art has been an important part of the fabric of the hospital from the beginning, reflecting half a century of trends in art, healthcare and society as a whole.

By adding new works of public art as the hospital environment evolves and changes, the Council’s Culture Administration works alongside the healthcare departments in the creation of attractive environments and a welcoming atmosphere. The overall design of the premises will strengthen the patient's own integrity. A well cared for healthcare environment is a clear sign of the respect and care shown towards patients and staff. Qualitative interior design and choice of art is also a way to create positive diversions for patients. The Council’s Culture Administration strives to include a multitude of artistic expressions in the county's various hospitals and looks forward to applications from artists without previous experience of public art commissions.

General information on open calls is available on our web, www.kultur.sll.se, under English.

Conditions on site

Each of the three premises to be rebuilt are largely similar in terms of their architecture and function. Each site will contain 28 single patient rooms divided into two wards. A specific theme for the interior design and colour plan for the wards has been created in accordance with overall guidelines for design at Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge.

A dialogue between the artists and architect in the development of the artistic project will be key to the development of the art commissions. In discussions with the building project group, the culture administration’s project manager has identified a number of suitable areas for the location of works of art; 6 large wall spaces and glass surfaces in the corridors. The wall spaces can be used for hanging works of art. The glass surfaces will be covered with an opaque plastic foil for the purposes of contrast marking and protecting patient & staff integrity. The design/artistic form of this plastic foil will be part of the art commission.

Work on the design/artistic form of the plastic foil will be based on discussions between the artist, the cultural administration, architects and an accessibility expert.

The exact locations for the works of art are not given in advance but for practical reasons the art will be primarily hung on the walls of the central corridors that run through the wards.

An important issue to take into account is the period available for production of the artwork. The relatively short production period may have an impact on the artist’s choice of materials and media and/or artistic process.

Budget

For the sketch assignment: 40,000 SEK excluding VAT.

The execution of the artistic public commission is budgeted at 330 000 SEK, excluding VAT. All costs connected to the execution and installation of the artwork, such as the artist’s own project planning time, material costs, subcontractors/assistants, travel, transportation, insurance, the artist’s own fee for executing the work and the artistic fee, storage until the time of installation, must be covered by this budget. The artist must provide an environmental checklist and a maintenance description, as well as operating and maintenance instructions.

Some costs related to the technical coordination, and installation of the art project will be financed from a separate budget.

Timetable

• 10th of April, 2018 at 24:00 hours. Deadline for submitting your Application of interest.
• 2018 week 16. Decision on which artists will receive sketch assignments.
• 2018 august. Proposal submission - only from nominated artists for sketch assignments.
• 2018 august. Discussion and approval of sketch assignments
• 2018 august. Start of production for all three assignments.
• 2019 march. Completed artworks to be installed in wards K61-63
• 2019 june. Completed artworks to be installed in wards B76-78
• 2019 june. Completed artworks to be installed in wards B86-88

The period for completion of the sketch assignments is May-July 2018, with submission of the completed sketches in august 2018.
Upon approval of the sketches, the period for production of the works of art is from
August 2018 – March 2019 for wards K61-63 and
August 2018 – June 2019 for wards B76-78 and B86-88.

Notifications to artists

Decisions on which artists are to be invited to take part are taken by the head of the art department, by delegation of the Cultural Council and published on the website of the Cultural Management website www.kultur.sll.se. Artists invited to submit sketch proposals are notified by telephone or e-mail. Within these three specific projects, The Culture Administration reserves the right to assign the assignment directly to one artist per project.

Questions

General information about our artistic assignments and the requirements we provide can be found in our frequently asked questions (link).

Specific questions regarding interest or the project are received by email to the project manager Finbar Krook Rosato and should be received no later than 2018-03-31.