SUPERMARKET MEETINGS are where the exhibitors meet and discuss specific topics for the artist-run scene. Meetings are an opportunity to exchange ideas, compare experiences, and make new connections. Meetings provide ways to find new collaborative partners and to build networks. Each Meeting lasts approximately an hour and has 5 – 8 participants. The meeting moderator introduces the topic and ensures that the meeting runs smoothly. Different meetings have different structures, some are discursive while others are a call to action, some offer successful models while others invite blue sky thinking. Meetings are also opportunities to learn from each other and further develop expertise.

We believe that small and focused meetings such as these are core to creating future collaborations. The importance of establishing strong connections between art professionals is fundamental to Supermarket and Meetings have planted the seeds of many new international collaborations. Meetings are only for exhibitors (not the public) and they are therefore a creative space for open discussions amongst peers.

Previous topics have included: curatorial activism, artists in residence, artists vs audiences, sustainability, building networks, (non)funding, social impact, working with institutions, safe space practice, collaborations vs co-operations, diversity, commons, artist-run for who?

Would you like to participate in Meetings or to know more?

Write to us meetings@supermarketartfair.com



MEETINGS 2023

Pedagogic Methodologies

Moderators: Filip Rahim Hansson, Galleri Rostrum and Belinda Morén, Best Before Collective
How can pedagogical methods benefit learning and in what way? What is your source of theory for educating others and Is there benefit in taking theories from other disciplines into the field of art? How are your own artistic practices needed and what can you learn from others?

The Curator’s Role in a Sustainable World
Moderator: Melike Bayık, hosted by Gözde Ju
How important is the work we do in the face of the rapid destruction of the world and environmental disasters? Can art save lives? And can art save the world? What is the role of curation in the sustainability steps of the exhibitions designed and the projects implemented in this age where the ecosystem is driven to a strict extinction in the face of the tyrannical lifestyles of humanity? Which sustainable steps and what kind of sustainability codes does the curator pay attention to in the exhibitions?

Art and education: an example of how to integrate art into children’s education
Moderator: Cecilie Bernts, Co-Director, Juxtapose Art Fair
What happens when children work with art and artists for two weeks? What can art add to regular teaching and what can teachers and artists learn from each other? In this meeting, Cecilie Bernts dives into her own experiences of working with children and schools, in the art project KUNSTMØDER in a provincial town in Denmark. We examine the pleasures and pitfalls, and see what such a project can give the children – and the schools.

International Artist & Curator Studios exchange: revising their relevance and potential opportunities.
Moderator: Lorena Parada
Local and international artists and curators discuss the potential benefits and pitfalls of a studio and residency exchange. This meeting will serve as the ground for possible future artists and curators exchanges to happen. Participants can be individuals, organisations, independent, private or from the public sector. Initially intended to develop exchanges between Colombia and other nationalities.

Shared Future Visions and Art.

Moderators: Ralf Baecker and  Hrachya Vardanyan GALIQUE Art Space, and Avetik Vardanyan ART INSIGHT Artist Platform
Discussion of two artist-run initiations in Gyumri. Sharing the philosophical backgrounds, which unite artists, building a ”shared future vision” based on Insight, impact of art on neuron anatomy and healing, finding ways to share the message through art, open call for international cooperations.

Evaluating the impact of education projects
Moderators: Rafat Asad and Jasem Mousa, Visual Arts Forum
How can you argue for your way of delivering education projects? Is it important to have a strategy for it? How can they work in a preventative way and will you know if you are doing the right work in the long run? We will consider these and other questions in relation to working with children in different contexts.

Climate Sustainability: Where to Start?
Moderator: Pamela Grombacher, Co-Director, Juxtapose Art Fair
Cultural policies and funding agencies are encouraging art organisations to become more eco-friendly. Making the green transition can be overwhelming, especially in the artist-run sector. How can we become more sustainable, with limited time and resources? Pam Grombacher shares insights from Juxtapose Art Fair’s recent efforts to develop a sustainability plan.

Qipo – new networking opportunities
Moderator: Ichiro Irie, Creative Director, QiPO Fair, artist member Tiger Strikes Asteroid and Laura Reséndiz, Executive Director, Qipo Fair 
Join us for a quick networking session and visual presentation about QiPO Fair, an annual event held during Mexico City’s art fair week. Our fair focuses on local and international artist-run initiatives, collectives and alternative spaces with the mission of promoting dialogue and collaboration. QiPO Fair has been featured in Art Forum, Time Out, and several major publications in Mexico and the U.S. More info at: www.qipofair.com

Accessibility in the Artist-Run Scene

Moderator: Sarah-Jane Mason, creative practitioner & educator and Director of Lacuna Festivals
Is the artist-run scene accessible for all? If not, why not? Who is struggling/missing and why?  What even is accessibility? And how do we go about integrating it into the basic framework of artist-led spaces and events?

Networking Artist-run Resource Centres
John W. Fail: Supermarket Stockholm Independent Art Fair
Artist-run Resource Centres (ARRC) are becoming an essential part of the artist-run scene.  We look at the potential for networking these initiatives to extend and develop the scope of their activities.  We investigate what they offer, how they might differ from other artist-run initiatives, identifying and sharing resources.

Residencies – uniformly globalising or colourfully diversifying?Moderator: Evelyn Grzinich, Coordinating Director, LOORE (Estonian Creative Residencies Network)
What are the challenges, hopes and visions of residencies in global crises and what role does locality play.

Artist-run Sustainability 
Moderator: Stuart Mayes (UK/SE), Meetings coordinator, Supermarket – Stockholm Independent Art Fair
This meeting gives space for some thought experiments and reflections taking sustainability as a point of departure.  Sustainability is one of two Meeting themes that Supermarket is running in conjunction with the Juxtapose Art Fair’s Think Tanks programme (Denmark).

Artist and/or Educator
Moderators: Belinda Morén, Best Before Collective, and Filip Rahim Hansson, Galleri Rostrum
In what ways can the artist and educator roles benefit one another? Is it necessary to be able to express your own artistic practice to be able to hold workshops in art? The meeting invites artists and pedagogs to discuss these questions with reference to their experiences as well as considering what new possibilities for learning there are while leading pedagogic projects.

Leaving the Twilight Zone
Moderators John W Fail and Stuart Mayes, Supermarket – Stockholm Independent Art fair
Get together and round off the fair at this informal meeting and sharing – what were the highlights of the fair … are you networked out … have you met new collaborators …have you fallen in love?  What happens after you leave the Twilight Zone?

Supermarket Meetings. Photo: Valentin Brutaro.