Vision Forum is an organisation that carries out research in contemporary art and organises events that transgresses the boundaries between performance, exhibition, workshops and education. It grew from a series of events organised by Curatorial Mutiny in collaboration with KSMKSM website (in Swedish) at Campus Norrköping, Linköping University in Sweden 2005–2007. Vision Forum took its present form in 2008. It does not have a physical location or a program, but responds to the needs of the group of artists, curators and researchers that are part of the network at any given moment. Its members are mostly based in Europe and have carried out projects all over the continent, in North America, Australia and Asia. In 2009, neuroscientist Stephen Whitmarsh joined the group, showing that the organisation can host members outside of the artistic community. A strategy that has been developed further in subsequent years.Time Capsules and Conditions of Now, Edited by Fatos Ustek, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, UK and Vision Forum 2012, .

Workshops and public presentations

In 2008–09, Vision Forum organised two major projects. (Anti)Realism brought together young contemporary visual artists based in Sweden, China, Great Britain, the Netherlands and France.Youth, Youth, Youth, pp. 120–121, Catalogue Produced by Huang Xiaopeng, Guangzhou At Academy, Guangzhou, China, 2008 The first part of the project was a practical workshop that took place in Guangzhou, China, in September 2008. The European participants developed collaborative projects with their Chinese peers that focused on time-based art.

”The title and the conceptual framework of the workshop (Anti)Realism was created to look into the differences and similarities of how we look at reality (both as individuals and as members of different cultures) and how that can be used to further our understanding and appreciation of life. The project allowed the participants to both understand differences between European cultures, as well as how these differ from Chinese contemporary art and life.”(Anti)Realism, Numéro 1, D'Ailleurs, Cold Mountain, France

The results of the workshop were presented to the public at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art and a second were later developed into an exhibition which was shown at Verkstad in Sweden, Ècole Régional de Beaux Arts de Besaçon in France and at Adele C in Italy.Youth, Youth, Youth, p. 87, Catalogue Produced by Huang Xiaopeng, Guangzhou At Academy, Guangzhou, China, 2008 Parallel to (Anti)Realism Vision Forum created four workshops in Rome, Zürich,Curatorial workshop in Zürich organised by White Space and other local players. Amsterdam, and Stockholm. These involved a completely different group of artists and curators from (Anti)Realism and focused on architecture, artistic production, curation and presentation respectively.

Development of Nodes

In 2009–10, Vision Forum focused on four major projects or "nodes". They were each made up of a number of artists and curators who, like the Vision Forum workshops in 2008-09 met regularly. The nodes were held together by all doing research on time and temporality in different ways. "If you don’t want God, you’d better have a multiverse" was curated and developed by 1:1 Projects in Rome. The project was focused on workshops in Rome, Skopje and Paris. At the last meeting, the participants reformulated themselves into "OuUnPo" (Workshop for Alternative Universes), inspired by French literary group Oulipo. The participants organised a public event at MACRO in Rome and at Tate Britain in LondonYane Calovski, Obj'ct, Ed. Basak Senova, Ponder Pause Process (a situation), p. 90-97, Zorlu Center Art Collection, Istanbul, Turkey in spring 2010 under the new name. Ouunpo has since then carried out events in Porto, Athens, Belgrade, Amsterdam-Nijmegen, Stockholm-NorrköpingMusic for Works, Takahashi and Miliani, Jacopo Miliani - Do you Believe in Mirages, a+mbookstore edizioni, Milan, 2012. . in collaboration with art and science institutions like Deste Foundation and Max Planck Institute. Australian artist duo A Constructed World started "Speech and What Archive?" which continued its activities in 2010–13. The node focused on alternative forms of communication and organised events in Paris, Nice, San Francisco and Melbourne working with art institutions like Villa Arson and CCA. Curator Claire Louise Staunton carried out research which later lead to the creation of the temporary gallery "Inheritance Shenzhen" in the Chinese region of Guangdong. This project was developed in Milton Keynes in 2011 with a large exhibition, seminar and publication. They then travelled to Chandigar and as an outcome of this research the node presented an exhibition about British architect Jane Drew and the artistic work that flourished around her at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London in 2014.

The Invisible Generation

The fourth major project realized in 2009–2010 was The Invisible Generation.The Invisible Generation, published by Vision Forum, Stockholm, Sweden, 2010. It was conceived by artist Per Hüttner and Curator Daniele Balit and created new meeting places between art and its audiences. A great number of projects were realized in Melbourne, Shenzhen, Beijing and Kyiv in 2009–2010. For each city the program and artist list was totally new. No, project was ever repeated twice. The project always allowed the audience to meet art in new and unexpected situations and played with or confused the audiences’ expectations about what art is, where it normally appears and what shape it should take. In the introduction to the project in the catalogue Gerrie van Noord writes:

"The Invisible Generation is a collection of artistic interventions that spread virally across the continents of our globe. It used the artistic and curatorial network of Vision Forum as a platform to multiply and make its way into the perception of people in unexpected spaces of selected cities around the world. The project takes its starting point in performative traditions, but focuses on practices and events that cross over into other time-based activities such as sound, film, video, literature, theatre and workshops and draws inspiration from other related fields such as journalism, fashion and design, but also from those further removed like mathematics and physics"Gerrie van Noord, p.8 The Invisible Generation catalogue, published by Vision Forum, Stockholm, Sweden, 2010. .

Redefining communication Since September 2011 Vision Forum organizes two international workshops a year in Östergötland in Sweden. These bring together members of the different international nodes (in 2012 Vision Forum ran 10 nodes) and interact with local institutions and art organizations. This means that the research carried out in the individual nodes have started cross referencing and exchanging methodology between each other. Vision Forum, through its structure, develops modes of communication and knowledge production that make use of current technology. The nodes of the network also allow a deeper dialogue with their audiences that, in their turn, are inscribed into in numerous interconnected networks.OuUnPo[RTO], edited by Claudia Squitieri and Samon Takahashi, texts by OuUnPo, designed by Åbäke published by Dent-de-Leone and Vision Forum, 2013. It has become increasingly clear that the network focuses on research about how art uses, retains, distributes and develops knowledge along with how this can be fed back into the everyday lives of art's audience.The Invisible Generation, Gerrie van Noord, 2011, published by Curatorial Mutiny and Vision Forum, Sweden. This ties in with Vision Forum's founder Per Hüttner's work that can be exemplified by projects like I am a Curator, Democracy and DesireDemocracy and Desire, 2007, 158 pages (A3) including 10 colour fold out pages. Languages: English, Swedish, Spanish and Rumanian. Design by Åbäke. Published by Vacio 9 and The Rumanian Cultural Institute. and (In)Visible Dialogues and have allowed them to participate in collective work in the Caribbean and in biennials in Brazil.Lisette Lagnado, p.134 Formas Unicas da Continuidade no Espaco, 33 Panorama da arte brasileira, São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, Brazil The methodology builds on Deleuzian ideas about knowledge and creativity and has been developed in Vision Forum's nodes and networks, particularly in OuUnPo. This idea of exchange is based on co-producing knowledge with the collaborating institutions and audiences, rather than a top down knowledge distribution. The strategy that they call "collapsing the global with the local" is currently being developed by the network in collaboration with Global Art and the Museum at ZKM in Karlsruhe.

Residency and Interdisciplinary Activities In 2011 Vision Forum started publishing books and catalogues regularly to document its activities. The organisation also started to produce experimental films in a separate node called Vision Forum Film. Two films were in Production in 2012: "Effektivia" directed by Jesper Frilund and Marcus Fernstad and "The River" by Sino-Swedish director Ting Ting Yang (杨婷婷).Vision Forum Film, edited by Rudi Heinrichsen, translated by Yan Rong and designed by Erik Månsson. Texts by Rudi Heinrichsen, Per Hüttner, Yang Tingting, Jesper Frilund and Rebecca Catching. published by Vision Forum, 2013. . In June 2013 Vision Forum opened an international residency program called "Norrköping Air.David Isaksson, Norrköpings Tidningar, p. B2-3, 20 July 2013" The program was initiated in collaboration with KSM at Linköping University, IASPIS and offers three artists the opportunity to work in parallel Sweden for 3 months during the Swedish summer months. The project focuses on experimental art in public spaces, drawing inspiration from the Invisible Generation and similar projects and was developed in close dialogue with the centenary of Norrköping Art Museum.

Selected workshops 2017 Native Foreigners, Museo Jumex, Mexico City in collaboration with Documenta 14 and De Appel EEGsynth and Brain Control Club at ICM in Paris What is Habit? Fullersta Gård, Huddinge. Riding the Donkey Backwards, Global Media Café: A Second Home: Mediating Borders and Hospitality, Stockholms universitet Stockholm.

2016 Voices of Culture, Goethe Institut and the European Union, Brussels Brain Control Club, CRI, Paris Riding the Donkey Backwards, Fullersta Gård, Huddinge. The EEGSynth, EMS, Stockholm Riding the Donkey Backwards, Stockholm and Antwerp. BrainHack, Ecole Normale Superieur, Paris

2015 OuUnPo Sweden, The Fugue, Bonniers konsthall, Hallwylska Museet, IASPIS etc., Stockholm Unfold at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Performing Objects, Enough Room for Space, Brussels, Belgium The EEGSynth, Frankfurt University Hospital, Frankfurt Germany and Champagne, France The Disembodied Voice, workshop in private and public spaces in London

2014 We Are what We Have Lost, OuUnPo São Paulo, MAM, Pinacoteca, Videobrasil etc. OuUnPoeïses, Fondazione Orestiadi and CRESM, Nuova Gibellina, Sicilien, Italien All the Worlds that you Word, GAM at ZKM i Karlsruhe, Tyskland

2013 Volume, 98weeks, Assabil Libraries, The National Library Archive etc., Beirut, Lebanon Is Misunderstanding Misunderstood, 3rd Ghetto Bienniale, Port-au-Prince, Haiti OuUnPo Japan, Godzilla and the Phoenix, Mori Art Museum, Spiral, Bankart 1929 and many more venues in Tokyo and Yokohama. Temporality and Dis-Location of Self, four workshops in around Stockholm, Botkyrka konsthall, Hallwylska palatset and various public locations.

2012 OuUnPo Lebanon "QUANTUM FLUCTUATIONS OF A SYNECDOCHIC UNIVERSE", Ashkal Alwan, Beirut Art Center, 98Weeks, Musée National de Beyrouth, UMAM Research and Documentation Centre and Batroun Projects. Ouunpo-rto, Culturgest, Casa de Musica, Fundação Serralves and other institutions in Porto, Portugal.