Advanced sound art earns circus artist innovation award
Pictured: Vejde Grind, Lina B. Frank, and Sebastian Jaktling.
Circus Director Lina B. Frank at Cirkus Syd is deeply committed to the development of the circus arts, ensuring that advancements and solutions within the field are utilized, and using the circus as a testbed. This commitment has led Cirkus Syd to become a member of Future by Lund. Now, in collaboration with Future by Lund and the Municipality of Lund, Cirkus Syd has established an annual award for artistic innovation. Lina B. Frank opened the event by speaking about what happens when art, culture, and innovation intersect.
- When we talk about innovation, we often think of new technology, new products, new services, and new companies. But innovation is also about something much less tangible. It is about how we imagine what does not yet exist. It is about asking questions for which we have no answers. It is about viewing a problem from a different angle, and it is about the courage to try something that might not work. These are not activities that belong exclusively in laboratories or business incubators; they are also at the heart of artistic practice. In circus, this is particularly visible. A circus artist takes something that seems impossible and asks, can I make it possible?
This year marks the first time the innovation award is being presented.
- We need a city that is willing to imagine things differently, including in terms of culture—not just by spouting jargon about art, culture, and innovation, but by actually bringing people together in a concrete way, continues Lina B. Frank. We realize that innovation does not only happen in laboratories, companies, or research institutions, but also in artistic practice, and we want to celebrate this. Firstly, I hope that the award means we can recognize artistic innovation on its own terms. Secondly, I hope it encourages new meetings and collaborations—between artists and researchers, but also between cultural organizations and companies, and between people who would not normally find themselves in the same room. And thirdly, I hope it creates a space for conversation, a place where we can ask what innovation means to different people and where we can think together about the kind of future we want to create.
Cirkus Syd has therefore created a new award, in collaboration with Future by Lund and with the support of the Municipality of Lund, to highlight this issue and recognize practitioners identified for their various contributions to artistic innovation.
The award will be presented annually and consists of a grant of 10,000 SEK and a statuette by Lund-based artist Oskar Olsson. This year's winner, Vejde Grind, was selected by a jury and presented by Sebastian Jaktling, Chair of the Culture and Leisure Committee in the Municipality of Lund.
- Vejde Grind has created a technique that allows you to create sound and music from movement. This technology could also be used in other contexts, linking certain types of movements to certain types of sound and light. That is why I think Vejde Grind is an excellent choice as the first recipient, says Katarina Scott from Future by Lund.
The nominees were:
Saloranta & de Vylder is an artistic collaboration between circus artist and director Olle Saloranta Strandberg and producer Sara de Vylder. Saloranta & de Vylder demonstrate how circus can reach far beyond the stage—by making the unthinkable concrete and transforming a cloud into a space for artistic experimentation, research, and new ways of experiencing the world.
Vejde Grind is a Swedish circus artist specializing in the Cyr wheel. In his artistic practice, he explores the intersection of circus, dance, sound, music, and technology. Vejde Grind shows how circus can become music—and how movement, body, and sound can together create an entirely new artistic language.
Erik Rosales is an artist, innovator, and one of the driving forces behind the internationally acclaimed performing arts group Sirqus Alfon. For over 20 years, he has explored the meeting point of performing arts, technology, interactivity, and humor. With AI.DENTITY, Erik takes this exploration into a highly relevant and rapidly changing future. AI.DENTITY is an example of how performing arts can be a space for experimenting with new technology—not just showcasing it.
Arenaslöjd is an all-encompassing performing arts company founded by Hedvig Flärdh and Jenny Soddu, who have been exploring the intersection of sloyd, craftsmanship, circus, and music since 2021. Arenaslöjd demonstrates how traditional craft can evolve into contemporary circus – and how materials, mechanics, and the body can come together to create an entirely new scenic language.
Tom Brand is a circus artist, director, and visual artist, and one of the founders of Svalbard Company. With VAL, Tom has created a unique combination of performance and light sculpture – a large, organic structure made of wood and LED lights that exists somewhere between a skeleton, an architectural space, and a digital organism.
Tom Brand shows how circus can expand far beyond the traditional stage – and how a sculpture can become a stage, a performer, and a living artistic space all at once.
Erik Åberg is a juggler, artist, sculptor, and circus researcher. Through his artistic doctoral project, Division Dialogues: On the Components and Practice of Juggling, he has investigated the objects, methods, and artistic possibilities of juggling. Erik Åberg demonstrates how artistic research can generate entirely new objects, movements, and ways of thinking about juggling – where craft, mathematics, sculpture, and circus meet in a single work.