Compassionate Communities Research week exhibition

As a part of KMD Research Week 2025, we present Compassionate Communities as part of an exhibition in Studio Forum space at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, UiB. This exhibition presents the artistic research project across the faculty’s three departments by Eamon O’Kane, Wolfgang Schmid, Amy van den Hooven, Jill Halstead and Jerome Emmanuel Picard. This project is part of a New European Bauhaus initiative at KMD and will be on display as a part of the Open Studio series in the Studio Forum space for one month.

The exhibition presents four ongoing, parallel research projects developed across the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design at the University of Bergen: Greymatter, Care for Music, IMAGINE, and School of Generational Storytelling. Together, the projects explore care, ageing, health, memory, and community through artistic research, spatial practice, music, and narrative-based methodologies.

The exhibition brings together printed materials that document project activities, processes, and outcomes, alongside moving-image works. These include the documentary film Greymatter Bergen, which follows neighbourhood-based and intergenerational practices around care and ageing, and the short film Lasting Music, which explores music as a lasting relational and therapeutic practice at the intersection of life, care, and end-of-life contexts.

Rather than presenting finalised results, the exhibition foregrounds research-in-progress. It highlights how artistic and design-led research can operate across disciplines, scales, and formats — from neighbourhoods and public space to music, storytelling, and intimate care practices. The projects share a common concern with how care can be understood as a cultural, spatial, and social practice embedded in everyday life.

Presented as part of KMD Research Week 2025 and the Open Studio series, the exhibition positions Compassionate Communities as a shared research horizon, aligned with the values of the New European Bauhaus: sustainability, inclusion, and beauty. The Studio Forum space functions as an open platform for dialogue, inviting students, researchers, and the public to engage with the projects over an extended one-month period.