ABOUT
Behind Maretopia stands a group of artists, researches, architects and curators with a joint vision of creating an art space on Stockholms water, which is open to the public, engages its community and focuses on sustainability and urban development.
It is a vision of a floating culture house that relates to its context in an eco-conscious way and promotes the production and experience of art on the waters of Stockholm. The implemented structures, building materials and processes were all chosen with regard to their environmental impact and ecological footprint. Maretopia is a public place to experience and discuss artistic and scientific content.
Three rafts outside of Färgfabriken are the result of the course “small building floating utopia” within the Interior Architecture and Furniture Design program at Konstfack. The five week long course focused on floating utopias and was led by lecturers Sergio Montero Bravo and Rochus Hinkel, in collaboration with Maretopia. The course included a seminar series about water and methods in design anthropology which was organised with the help of Sara Reinholtz by Interaktiva Institutet. The students developed a vision of a floating culture house for which they then started to manufacture and build a theatre scene and an audience platform as well as a pedalboat. Floating islands with water cleansing plants can be released from the boat. The idea for these islands was further developed by the Interior Architecture student Cecilia Tjärnberg, resulting in two larger islands with plants cleaning the water and function as a floating habitat for animal life.
Students from Konstfack Interior Architecture & Furniture Design who participated in the coarse and built the rafts:
Anton Normark, Cassandra Lorca Macchiavelli, Cecilia Tjärnberg, David Lundberg, Elias Båth, Elin Östling, Elisa Hedin, Emma Strömberg, Frida Wallin, Helena Winberg, Malin Bosdotter, Marcus Badman, Martin Thübeck, Revaz Berdzenishvili, Sandra Meurman, Vilde Ödman
LAUNCH OF MARETOPIA MAY 2015
The newly built structures for Maretopia were launched in the water in May 2015.
COLLABORATIONS & FUTURE OUTLOOK
Maretopia continues to tie together locals, artists, researchers and architects, as well as lecturers and students at several universities and art schools in the Stockholm area. Cooperation partners are a.o. professor Peter Lang (Royal Institute of Art) and lecturer Sergio Montero Bravo (Konstfack). Through this network, students have the chance to work with a public platform for developing and carrying out their own projects, while the development of Maretopia is influenced by various agents.
For the future the objective is to build a movable cluster of several floating pontoons, each in the size of a „recreational vessel boat“ (less than 12x4m, fewer than 13 persons per unit). These pontoons will have various functions and layouts, such as gardens offering experimental cultivation or vertical farming opportunities, as well as spaces for having conversations and lectures, workshops, screenings and exhibitions.
Further thanks to:
Briggs & Stratton, Jackon AB, Konstfrämjandet, Erik Sjödin, Fernando Caceres and many other artists, researchers and architects.
MARE LIBERUM
Maretopia has grown from the artists’ project Mare Liberum - a floating platform for art on Stockholms waters. The project was initiated in 2013 by a group of artists and curators, of which many are alumnis of the Royal Art Institute and/or have good knowledge of boats. Mare Liberum was run by Andrew Hamish McDavitt, GIDEONSSON/LONDRÉ, Heather Jones, Jens Evaldsson, Marja Knape, Santiago Mostyn.
Mare Liberum hosted various smaller performance, exhibition and artist talk events and two major performance events: The first event was carried out during Stockholm Culture festival in cooperation with Färgfabriken art gallery in August 2013. The second event was carried out in April 2014 in cooperation with Moderna Bar and the Normalcy project by the Royal Institute of Art. The project was funded by artistic development funds from the Royal Insitute of Art and a total of 6 rafts was built during 2013 and 2014.