Lim Artist Placement (LAP) is a contemporary art programme that draws on the legacy of the British Artist Placement Group (APG), founded in the 1960s. APG challenged traditional notions of the role and placement of art by insisting that artistic practice could—and should—take place outside conventional art institutions, embedding itself in businesses, public institutions, and other societal structures. Guided by the motto “The context is half the work,” APG regarded contextual and institutional frameworks not merely as conditions for the artwork, but as active co-producers in its formation and meaning.


The LAP programme consists of long-term collaborations between socially engaged visual artists and institutional contexts such as midwifery centres, asylum centres, and women’s shelters. Its aim is to explore how contemporary art can operate within—and be shaped by—vulnerable and shifting institutional and public environments.


Founded by Barbara Steveni and Fluxus artists in the 1960s,The Artist Placement Group (APG) formalised the role of art within public institutions by experimenting with placing artists in government offices, schools, health clinics, and other public bodies. Their work explored the social value of artistic labour and knowledge, emphasising how institutions, offices, and organisations offer unique environments for artistic engagement and reflection—environments in which sensuous knowledge can reveal embodied yet often hidden aspects of organisational culture. Here, the politics of aesthetics—rather than the artistic object—provides a framework for engaging with how care, sensibility, and relationships can function as critical and meaning-making structures within social fields.





Within LAP, it becomes especially clear how artistic processes can make visible and value the often-overlooked labour and affective infrastructures that underlie community-building and local knowledge. This approach is particularly relevant today within the growing field of artistic practice in health and care, where significant asymmetries exist in who defines knowledge and decision-making power. Artistic practice can act as an alternative platform for articulating citizens’ experiences—experiences that often lie outside the scope and language of administrative or clinical protocols.



Such asymmetries have long been addressed by artistic engagement in care, illness, and marginalisation—from intersectional, queer, feminist, and activist practices such as those of Del LaGrace Volcano, the Combahee River Collective, Jo Spence, and the collective works of Suzanne Lacy and Mary Kelly in the 1970s, to contemporary critical institutions like Birth Rites Collection and the Live Art Development Agency, which centre gender and accessibility, and the work of SAVVY Contemporary on colonial foundations of psychiatry and global health systems.



In the Danish context, care-focused curatorial approaches are also being developed through projects such as Ømme Knapper (Tender Buttons), the National Centre for Art and Mental Health, for work on intersectoinal perspectives the cutorial platform Marronage, the *Centre for Art and Migration*, and *Trampolinhuset*.

The programme is realised through a series of cross-disciplinary collaborations and involves both internal and external curatorial partners across a range of artistic practices and projects. LAP is participant-driven and comprises artistic workshops, happenings, and events that centre citizens’ voices and involve reflective development processes with staff, management, and professionals from partner institutions.

Lim Artist Placement (LAP) er et samtidskunstprogram, der trækker på arven fra den britiske Artist Placement Group (APG), grundlagt i 1960’erne. APG udfordrede traditionelle forestillinger om kunstens rolle og placering ved at insistere på, at kunstnerisk praksis kunne og burde finde sted uden for de institutionelle kunstfelter – i virksomheder, offentlige institutioner og andre samfundsmæssige strukturer. Med udgangspunkt i mottoet “The context is half the work” blev kontekstuelle og institutionelle rammer ikke blot betingelser for kunstværket, men aktive medproducenter i dets tilblivelse og betydning.

Programmet består af flerårige samarbejder mellem socialt engarerede billedkunstnere og institutionelle kontekster såsom jordemodercentre, asylcentre og krisecentre med det formål at undersøge, hvordan samtidskunsten kan virke i – og påvirkes af – sårbare og omskiftelige institutionelle og offentlige rum.


Grundlagt af den engelske billedkunstner Barbara Steveni og hendes Fluxus-kolleger i 1960'erne, formaliserede APG kunstens rolle i samfundets institutioner ved at eksperimentere med at placere kunstnere i regeringskontorer, skoler, sundhedsklinikker og offentlige institutioner for at udforske samfundsværdien af kunstnerisk arbejde og viden. Deres arbejde understregede, hvordan institutioner, kontorer og organisationer tilbyder unikke miljøer for kunstnerisk engagement og refleksion – miljøer, hvor sanselighed og viden kan udfolde aspekter af organisationer og kulturer, som ofte er kropsligt erfarede, men forbliver skjulte. Æstetikkens politik – snarere end det kunstneriske objekt – skaber en ramme for at arbejde med, hvordan sanselighed, omsorg og relationer kan fungere som kritiske og meningsskabende strukturer i arbejdet med kunst i sociale felter.


I LAP bliver det særligt tydeligt, hvordan kunstneriske processer kan synliggøre og værdsætte det ofte oversete arbejde og de affektive infrastrukturer, der ligger bag fællesskabsdannelse og lokal viden. Denne tilgang er i dag særlig relevant i det voksende felt af kunstnerisk praksis inden for sundhed og omsorg, hvor der findes betydelige asymmetrier i, hvem der definerer viden og beslutningskraft. Kunstnerisk praksis kan her fungere som en alternativ platform for at artikulere borgeres erfaringer – erfaringer, der ofte står uden for de administrative og sundhedsfaglige protokollers blik og sprog.


Disse asymmetrier er også i høj grad blevet belyst af kunstnerisk engagement i omsorg, sygdom og marginalisering – fra intersektionelle, queer, feministiske og aktivistiske praksisser som Del LaGrace Volcano, Combahee River Collective, Jo Spence, Suzanne Lacy og Mary Kellys kollektive arbejder i 1970’erne til nutidige kritiske institutioner som Birth Rites Collection og Live Art Development Agency, der arbejder med fokus på køn og tilgængelighed, samt SAVVY Contemporarys arbejde der adresserer psykiatriens og sundhedssystemernes koloniale rødder.


I en dansk kontekst arbejdes der også med omsorgsaktivistiske, kuratoriske greb i projekter som Ømme Knapper og Nationalt Center for Kunst og Mental Sundhed, det intersektionelle felt i kuratorplatformen Marronage, Center for Kunst og Migration og Trampolinhuset.


Programmet realiseres gennem en række fagsamarbejder og gør brug af både interne og eksterne kuratoriske kræfter i forbindelse med forskellige kunstneriske praksisser og projekter. LAP er deltagerbaseret og består af kunstneriske workshops, happenings og events, der sætter borgernes stemmer i centrum og involverer refleksive udviklingsforløb med institutionernes personale, ledelse og fagprofessionelle.