Cluster 8

A POINT IN TIME

3-5 september 2021


A Point in Time


Pollen holds the potential for a beginning. For life to blossom, and to be carried away to new places. With this exhibition, we embrace the potential for new directions, for the unexpected. From the beginning of our collaboration, Cluster 8 has been entangled with the personal archive of Gustav Sandberg, a scientist working at the environmental research station in Abisko between the late 1920s and the late 1970s. Treading the line between speculative invention and discovery, we lived alongside and delved together into this archive, attempting to decipher Sandberg’s organisational systems.


We became carers, explorers, inventors, code breakers. Inspired by rhizomatic thinking, we let our inspirations soar: from palynology to data exploration, to
ruins, to trash, to unfathomable numbers scribbled on yellowing bits of paper.
This exhibition brings us back to Sandberg’s archive. It is our way of giving a physical shape to our research, as well as an opportunity to take it into unforeseen territories. Cluster 8 invites you to be a part of the continuation of our process, to explore the entanglements of interdisciplinary endeavours together.


Members of Cluster 8 will be on site at all times and we encourage you to come talk to us, ask us questions, challenge us. Our collaboration has been nurtured and strengthened through the passionate sharing of ideas, and we wish to continue this cross-pollination with all of you.


Cluster 8
___________


Bio
Cluster 8 is an interdisciplinary art collective of curatorial practice, art history, quantum physics, and artistic creation. Using experimentation as a form, Cluster 8 explores the borders where art and research meets: between technology and nature, digital process and analogue work.
Founded in the spring 2021, Cluster 8 was a part of the interdisciplinary artistic project In Memoriam/In Futurum, a collaboration of curating students from Stockholm University, artists studying at the Royal Institute of Art and student researchers from different departments at Stockholm University with the support of Accelerator. Cluster 8 has continued its work since the project was finished in June 2021 and is now an independent artistic group.


The collective consists of
Isabelle Ribe (International Masters Programme in Curating, Stockholm University)
Sara Ekholm Eriksson (MFA student, The Royal Institute of Art)
Lior Nønne Malue Hansen (MFA student, The Royal Institute of Art)
Axel Gagge (PhD student quantum physics, Stockholm University and BFA student, The Royal Institute of Art)

Otto Ruin (MA student, art history, Stockholm University)
​​Paulina Granat (International Masters Programme in Curating, Stockholm University)


www.cluster8.org
@cluster.8


For more information about In Memoriam/In Futurum visit www.inmemoriaminfuturum.com
___________


Flat Octopus invites Cluster 8


With this exhibition we want to promote and offer space for collaborative and interdisciplinary ventures, by inviting Cluster 8 to develop their ongoing work. Flat Octopus, like Cluster 8, works on a basis of exchange between people of different backgrounds - our projects aiming to span a variety of contexts, frameworks and ideas, all stemming from the interests of different members of the collective. We are interested in learning about new ways of exhibiting ideas as well as art, and to learn from other collaborative platforms such as Cluster 8 and Galleri NOS.


Focusing on potential cross-pollinations between art and research as well as experimental artistic processes, this exhibition is meant to facilitate further opportunities of exploration and collective creativity for Cluster 8, outside of their initial student project setting. The exhibition functions as an extension of their work, carried out during spring 2021, as well as to the presentation by them given at Accelerator on September 1st. A Point in Time is meant to function as a stepping stone towards future explorations and collaboration.


Franziska Sperling & Paulina Granat
___________


Flat Octopus is an international artist- and curator-run collective in Stockholm, Sweden, initiated in 2019. It consists of seven individuals from different cultural and professional backgrounds. Flat Octopus organises exhibitions in select apartments in Stockholm as well as external collaborations and projects.


Flat Octopus are Edit Fándly, Juanma González, Paulina Granat, Amr Hamid, Alice Máselníková, Franziska Sperling and Erik Wijkström.


www.flatoctopus.com
@flat.octopus


Photos: Sara Ekholm Eriksson, Axel Gagge, Paulina Granat