Karin Coenen defends her PhD thesis

This interdisciplinary thesis – spanning contemporary art, human geography, and innovation studies – explores how art and artistic practice engage with and contribute to the transformation of regional places often described as ‘left behind’. It shifts attention from the well-studied art scenes and cultural industries of major cities to the often overlooked creative dynamics of regional towns shaped by post-industrial change and positioned as peripheral to the creativity and innovation typically associated with large urban centres.

The research examines artistic practice through three different entry points. First, it studies bottom-up, artist-led initiatives – IFÖ Center in Bromölla, Sweden, and Rjukan Solarpunk Academy in Rjukan, Norway – as alternative forms of organisation and social innovation. Second, it focuses on a single artistic practice and site-specific public artwork – Solspeil by Martin Andersen – and how it brings together multiple place narratives in Rjukan: the dominant industrial heritage narrative, local experiences of loss and hope for a better future, and the town’s relationship with the sun and its seasonal absence. These first two studies are ethnographically informed case studies. Third, the thesis moves inside an artistic process through active participation and experimental collaboration with an artist. Responding to an open call within the Creative Europe-funded project ‘Accessible Art for All’, the collaboration developed a permanent, site-specific artwork for an accessible public toilet at Regionmuseet Kristianstad.

The thesis contributes to our understanding of local development and placemaking by showing how artist-led initiatives and artistic practices can contribute to processes of deperipheralisation. Rather than assessing art mainly through instrumental outcomes, such as economic growth or place attractiveness, it foregrounds how artistic practice can mobilise social relations, care for place and new ways of experiencing and imagining place. Artistic practices can question, respond to and play with the multiplicity of place. Placemaking through art therefore involves complexity, contestation and friction, drawing attention to what may be concealed, uncomfortable or excluded.

Biography

Karin Coenen holds a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Art History from Lund University, Sweden, and a Master of Arts in ‘Museum, Heritage and Gallery Studies’ from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. Before embarking on her doctoral research, she worked professionally as an art curator and museum educator at, among others, Malmö Konsthall and Skissernas Museum in Lund, Sweden. Her current work spans research at the intersection of art and geography alongside curatorial work. In 2026, she curated the exhibition Sweat and Blood by Diana Burkot/Pussy Riot at Kristianstads konsthall, Sweden. Her PhD is part of the programme Regional Development and Responsible Innovation (RESINNREG) at HVL. The thesis is an article-based dissertation. Two of the three papers are single-authored, and all three have been peer-reviewed and published. Here you can learn more about Coenens work.

Trial Lecture

The trial lecture will take place on september 25, 2026 at 10:15 at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, in room M005, K2, Campus Bergen.

Title of the trial lecture: 
“How has arts-based research been applied, and what is the state of the art here, in the field of geography?”

Public Defence

The trial lecture will take place on september 25, 2026 at 10:15 at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, in room M005, K2, Campus Bergen.

Title of the dissertation:
«Beyond the Walls - Spatial Transformation through Artistic Practice in Regional Contexts»

Streaming

https://hvl.zoom.us/j/64693078520?pwd=9LGWj9FVwFEYuJxuhL0Lglrw0OX5Ab.1&from=addon

Passcode: 332006

Evaluation Committee

Chair:
Assosiate Professor Svein Gunnar Sjøtun, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

Opponents:
Assosiate Professor Jenny Sjøholm, Linkjöping Universitet
Assosiate Professor Kristine Samson, Roskilde Universitet

Supervisors

• Tobba Sudmann, Prof. Dr., Department of Health and Functioning, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
• Gesa Pflitsch, Dr., MSc, Institute of Landscape Development, Recreation and Conservation Planning, BOKU University
• Flor Avelino, Prof. Dr., Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development; Utrecht University

Chair of the Defence

Dean Jens Kristian Fosse