LAP (lím artist placement) is a pilot project exploring new collaborative formats between contemporary artists and care communities in and around the health and social sector in North Jutland. Through five different placements, the respective artists collaborate with various institutions, associations, and care communities for a period of up to 12 months with the aim of creating a common research framework for investigating questions relevant to the communities through workshop activities led by the artist.

The programme has been developed with inspiration from contemporary as well as art historical resources and activism around self-organised health, including norm critical and feminist health and radical organising of BIPoC and Queer culture. Art and health is a diverse, developing field of practice in Denmark with projects such as the National Center for Art and Mental Health which works with art within the psychiatric system; North Jutland Center for Health and Culture which explores the use of culture to promote the health of citizens; and the art space Ømme Knapper which explores intersections of art and care activism.

In the UK, institutions such as Bethlem Gallery,  which was founded in 1997 at the psychiatric ward of Bethlem Royal Hospital in Beckenham - have worked with the exchange of knowledge and practices between professional artists and users of the psychiatric system through exhibition activities and open workshops. Artist-run institutions such as the Birth Rites Collection (UK) and the Live Arts Development Agency (UK) point to a broader critical framing of minority health and care concepts within contemporary art. Birth Rites Collection works specifically with reproductive health and contemporary art. The Live Arts Development Agency’s programme has focused on performative and experimental practices with sensibilities for diversity as well as Queer and accessibility issues. Equally, health is considered in the context of persistent racialised structural inequalities in Scandinavian post-colonial society, explored in the resistance publications by the decolonial feminist collective Marronage and the artistic programme of Center for Art and Migration Politics (2015-2020). This perspective is elaborated on from a broader European perspective by SAVY Contemporary (DE) in their project titled 'Ultrasanity: on madness, santiation, antipsychiatry, and resistance' (2019-2020) which expose the colonial roots of western psychiatry through a focus on resistance movements and decolonial contemporary art practices.

The LAP programme draws inspiration from these projects in framing the work on health and care in relation to the various artistic practices and their collaborators.

LAP (lím artist placement) er et pilotprojekt, der undersøger nye samarbejdsformer mellem samtidskunstnere og omsorgsfælleskaber i og omkring sundheds- og socialsektoren i Nordjylland. Igennem fem forskellige projekt-forløb samarbejder de respektive kunstnere med forskellige institutioner, foreninger og sundhedsfælleskaber i en periode på op til 12 måneder med det formål at skabe en fælles ramme for at undersøge spørgsmål, der optager målgruppen, igennem workshop-aktiviteter ledet af kunstneren.

Programmet er udviklet med inspiration fra samtidige og kunsthistoriske ressourcer og aktivistisk arbejde omkring selvorganiseret sundhed, såsom normkritisk og feministisk sundhed og radikal organisering af BIPoC- og Queer-kultur. Kunst og sundhed er et diverst praksisfelt i udvikling i Danmark med projekter såsom Nationalt Center for Kunst og Mental Sundhed, der arbejder med kunst i psykiatrien, Nordjysk Center for Sundhed og Kultur, som arbejder med brugen af kultur til sundheds-fremme for borgere, og kunstrummet Ømme Knapper, der arbejder med omsorgsaktivisme.

I England har institutioner såsom Bethlem Gallery, som blev grundlagt i 1997 på den psykiatriske afdeling i Bethlem Royal Hospital
i Beckenham, arbejdet med videns- og praksisudveksling mellem professionelle kunstnere og brugere af psykiatrien igennem udstillingsaktiviteter og åbne værksteder. Selvorganiserede institutioner såsom Birth
Rites Collection (UK), der arbejder specifikt
med reproduktiv sundhed og samtidskunst,
og Live Arts Development Agency (UK), hvis program har sat fokus på performative og eksperimenterende praksisser med blik for diversitet samt Queer- og tilgængeligheds-problematikker, peger på en bredere kritisk rammesætning af minoriseret sundhed og omsorgsbegreber indenfor samtidskunsten. Ligeledes ligger der et sundhedsperspektiv i
de strukturelle uligheder, som skandinaviske postkoloniale samfund fortsat skaber. Dette udforskes bl.a. af det dekoloniale, feministiske kollektiv Marronage i deres modstands-fortællinger og i det kunstneriske program for Center for Art and Migration Politics (2015-2020). SAVY Contemporary (DE) uddyber lige-ledes dette perspektiv med projektperioden ‘Ultrasanity: on madness, santiation, anti-psychiatry, and resistance’, som satte fokus på koloniale rødder i den vestlige psykiatrived at fremhæve modstandsbevægelser og dekoloniale samtidskunstpraksisser.

LAP-programmet drager inspiration fra disse projekter i rammesætningen af arbejdet med sundhed og omsorg i relation til de forskellige kunstneriske praksisser og deres samarbejdspartnere.