RUSMUS stands for Regional Youth Salon & Mobile Youth Salon and was started four years ago by Katarina Sundqvist Zohari and Nito Vega. The purpose of the project is to democratize art by creating temporary artworks in public spaces inspired by their changing nature.
Katarina and Nito have been long-time members of the Uppsala Artists’ Club. The background for RUSMUS is their desire to attract more young artists to stay and work in Uppsala.
There is no art college in Uppsala. Therefore, it has been beneficial to run this project to try to attract those who have left the city. We need to highlight that Uppsala is a very good city to work in, says Katarina.
Temporary artworks reflect the public space
This year, the project was expanded and started with an exploratory residency. Over a week, five selected artists explored different districts within the Uppsala region. The artists were then assigned a district each to create a temporary artwork on-site that would reflect the changing nature of the public space. Through discussions and meetings with civil society during the residency, inspiration was gathered for the intervention.
Since the project is not about permanent art, the processes leading up to the intervention become a very important part.
The project concluded with a Material display. Katarina and Nito describe it as an open forum where artists could present their artistic interventions and share the process with visitors at the Uppsala Artists’ Club.
RUSMUS aims to integrate the city with culture
RUSMUS aims to contribute to Uppsala becoming the Capital of Culture in 2029 by integrating the city with culture. Therefore, there was a thought behind the choice of districts for the project. To connect to the theme Between the lines, locations were chosen that, according to Katarina and Nito, are in the interstices of Uppsala’s major cultural scenes. Nito describes that the city consists not only of extremes but also of interstices. By making art accessible to those who are not usually active cultural consumers, it is possible to democratize art, which is one of the project’s goals.
Once you get a foot in the door and are introduced to art, it’s much easier to indirectly become a cultural consumer.
You can read more about the RUSMUS project and this year’s artistic interventions on the Uppsala Artists’ Club website.
Artistic Interventions 2023
- Maja Fredin, Salabacke LOCAL. Källparken, Salabacke. Uppsala
- Hedda Hultman, They said to me: Speak! And I closed my eyes. Bålsta Centrum. Bålsta
- Tova Jertfelt, Paradise. Solvallsparken, Rosendel. Uppsala
- Ina Jostrup, Inert Flows. Skeppsgården, Bålsta.
- Cristian Quinteros Soto, A Day of Care. Tegnerparken, Luthagen. Uppsala.
