POLAR & TROPIC: Rethinking the Art Fair Experience
Participants: Belén Santillán (Tenthouse, Oslo), Alvaro Gurrea (SWAB, Barcelona), Hedda Grevle Ottesen (Podium K4, Oslo), May Swing (Gelanggang Orarasa, Bandung), Jari Malta (Fuxia 2, Malmö), Óscar Ramas (Not Safe for Work / NSFW, Gothenburg), Mathilde Palenius (Station of Commons), Gregoire Rousseau (Station of Commons) | Moderated by Mathilde Palenius
The Polar & Tropic program at Swab 2025 Barcelona brings together galleries, artist-run spaces, and collectives from the Nordic countries, where strong institutional support and public funding shape artistic practice, and from Southeast Asia, where limited resources have created self-organised communities and grassroots collaboration. By highlighting these different modes of artistic engagement, the program encourages forms of exchange that extend beyond trade and market dynamics, and creates a vibrant space for dialogue, experimentation, and artistic exchange across continents.
Beyond the commercial logic of the fair, participants explore knowledge-sharing, sustainable networks, and alternative approaches to artistic labor. In this conversation, artists and curators from the Polar & Tropic program reflect on the challenges and opportunities of presenting work in an art-fair context, from improvising installations to forging long-term collaborations, revealing how such a space can become a hub for collective creativity and the reimagining of global art networks.
