MFA2 - Examination

About the MFA exam year

The second year of the MFA is dedicated to the exam project – both text and the solo exhibition. We recommend that you begin writing your MFA early on, and begin the dialogue with the MFA tutor that has been allocated during the first weeks of the semester. We will go through all aspects of the exam year 5. September 2025

About your MFA – essays: 

 You are to write a master’s essay on approximately 10‐15 pages, and the deadline is 1. April 2026. Please write in your preferred language, and the school will provide translation of the text in dialogue with the yearbook editor. You are obliged to follow the deadlines and to be in dialogue with the translator and the copyeditor, as well as the editor of the yearbook. 

The essay is not supposed to be an academic paper, and not a literary work, but an essay. You are supposed to make an analysis of your own work. You are also supposed to present the context of your work. A part of the references should be artistic. If you choose not to have any artistic references, you’ll need to explain why in the text. The references can of course also be philosophical, political, musical etc. You will get an introduction to references and bibliography by a librarian.  

You can select between three tutors on the MFA text who will tutor you individually on the text, and you can contact them as often as you wish during the writing process. 

The tutors are Prof. Gertrud Sandqvist: Gertrud [dot] Sandqvist [at] khm [dot] lu [dot] se (Gertrud[dot]Sandqvist[at]khm[dot]lu[dot]se), Stephan Möller: stephan [dot] moller [at] khm [dot] lu [dot] se (stephan[dot]moller[at]khm[dot]lu[dot]se) and Carina Emery: carina [dot] emery [at] khm [dot] lu [dot] se (carina[dot]emery[at]khm[dot]lu[dot]se)

Many of you know Gertrud, and below you will find short bios for Carina Emery and Stephan Möller. Please make a prioritized list of text tutors – you can’t be guaranteed your priority, but we are striving to get everyone either first or second choice of tutor. There will be presentations in September of the text tutors, and you will choose the tutor directly after the meeting that takes place on the 5. September 2025. 

Tutor bios:

Carina Emery

Carina Emery (b. 1991, Switzerland) is a sculpture and installation artist based in Paris. She holds an MFA from Malmö Art Academy and graduated with distinction from École des Beaux-Arts de Paris. In her practice, she explores bio-technological intimacies and the resemblance of materials to organic and psychic sensations, as well as to individual or social states of bodies. In 2022, she was awarded the "À L'Œuvre!" production residency at Lafayette Anticipations in Paris, nominated for the Swiss Art Awards, and received a one year working grant from The Swedish Arts Grants Committee. She was a resident at Villa Belleville in Paris (2021) and was awarded a residency in Vienna by Kultur-Kontakt Austria (2018). In 2024, she will be a resident in the Open Studio Program at Fonderia Battaglia in Milan. At the beginning of 2023, Emery exhibited a new body of work in a solo show at Galerie für Gegenwartskunst in Freiburg i.Br., Germany. Her work has also been recently shown at Espace Voltaire, Paris; Giulietta, Basel; Arcway Nightlands Connector, Copenhagen; Canopy, Malmö; VinVin Gallery, Vienna; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris; Kunsthaus Langenthal, Switzerland; Centre d'art Pasquart Bienne, Switzerland; Kulturdrogerie, Vienna.

Stephan Møller 

I graduated from Malmö Art Academy's MFA programme in 2019 and has been a guest Teacher at Malmö Art Academy from 2019 – since 2023 I have been tutoring MFA students texts and teaching to write about your own work for the BFA1 students. Furthermore, I have been a guest teacher at Ærø Kunsthøjskole since 2020.

At the Academy, I taught theoretical courses in collaboration with Gertrud Sandqvist, focusing on close readings of a wide array of thinkers and writers, including Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Hélène Cixous, Georges Bataille, Simone Weil, Karen Barad, and G. W. F. Hegel. 

 At Ærø Kunsthøjskole, I have conducted introductory courses in semiotics and writing, exploring possible ways to connect artistic practice with text. Additionally, I have facilitated practical courses that involve organizing group exhibitions. I have also published a few essays and worked as an editor. Most recently, I edited the catalogue for the annual exhibition SommerSkulpturSøby, contributing an article on the work of Étienne-Louis Boullée. 

 In my artistic practice, I work with multiple mediums, and my projects often culminate in installations that include texts, videos, and objects. While I have worked with various media in different projects, my work consistently begins with research. Generally, I have a strong interest in human interaction and intersubjectivity, and how our experience is immersed in and influenced by language. I have exhibited at Skissernas Museum in Lund, Galleri Arnstedt in Östra Karup, and Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen. However, since 2020, I have primarily focused on teaching, reading, and writing.

After the text has been approved by a professor, the texts will be translated and copy edited. You will work with the translator, so the meaning of your text is intact in the English version followed by the work of the copy editor. The role of the copy editor is to get the English text correct after the translation, and before it will be published in the yearbook. Working with both is equally important, and this will happen during the spring. Karin Hald is the editor of our yearbook, and she will inform you on the deadlines, which you must keep during this process. The text will be presented in a text seminar 18-20 May 2026 together with your peers in MFA2. In the seminar, each of you will get one of your colleague’s texts to oppose on, meaning that you’ll read carefully through the text, present it to the seminar and pose questions to it, for approximately 30 minutes. After that the professors will make their comments. Followed by an open session for general comments from the group. All in all, each text will be discussed for one hour. 

21-22. May 2025 you will make an artist talk for 20 minutes to your peers in the class and for the professors. The group will comment on each presentation, not about the content, but on how it is presented, the quality of the documentation etc. We recommend that you use the professional documentation, and make sure to test the presentation beforehand in terms of timing and technicalities. There is a projector, speakers, and a computer available for the presentation. 

 About the MFA exhibitions 

As a MFA2 student you will do a solo exhibition in one of the galleries – either KHM1 or KHM2. You will select a tutor to work with throughout the MFA2 year – please mark you 1,2 and 3 priorities when choosing tutor. We will discuss this during the individual tutorials in the beginning of the semester and you should submit your selection on 5. September as the latest. The tutor will meet you during the year to discuss the MFA2 work and the exhibition. The tutors do not work fulltime, so it can happen that the tutor can’t be there during installation. The academy’s professors Joachim Koester (2 students), Fredrik Vaerslev (3 students), Alejandro Cesarco (3 students), Gertrud Sandqvist (2 students), and Maj Hasager (1 student), as well as our external supervisors Marie Muracciole (1 student), Nina Roos (1student), Ann Böttcher (2-3 students) and Charif Benhelima (1 student) are all possible choices for the MFA2 students.

The MFA2 exhibitions run over the spring semester – two during each slot, and often there are also exhibition slots in August. If choosing the August exhibition – the exhibition layout should be ready in June, since there is limited access to staff and workshops over the summer. The students that have their exhibitions in August will be examined on their works and documentation in May – so it is important to be ready for this early on. Exhibitions slots will be distributed in the beginning of the semester during or after the meeting 5.9 2025, and you should consider which gallery, and the preferred time you would like to exhibit 

Meeting the external participant in the examination

The external participant in the examination will meet all students individually for one hour. Here you will present your work for approximately 20 min and have a discussion for the remaining time. 

You can read more about the galleries here: https://www.khm.lu.se/en/about‐us‐ new/facilities/galleries 

Finally, the professors will pass/fail your texts and exam exhibition in an examination meeting together with the external participant in the examination.