"We cannot live without logic.
But logic kills poetry.
And we cannot live without poetry."

-Ingemar Lindh


The Institutet för Scenkonst (Institute for Scenic Art) is a laboratory theatre and an international meeting point for artists. It was founded in 1971 in Storhögen (Sweden) by Ingemar Lindh who directed it until his death in 1997.

1976 marked the start of a nomadic period for the group with work all around Europe and stays in Switzerland, France, Spain, and Italy. In 1984 the group established its base in Italy, renting an old theatre building, the Teatro della Rosa, in Pontremoli. The International Centre for Auto Pedagogy and Theatre Research was founded at this period, as was the yearly pedagogical project 'University of Theatre'.

Since 1998 the Institutet för Scenkonst has been based once again in Sweden (Munkängen, Nygård) under the direction of Magdalena Pietruska and Roger Rolin.
Our theatre work, which embraces performances as well as pedagogy, is based on our laboratory research work on the art of the actor. The distinctive features of this work are an emphasis on the actor as auteur, collective improvisation, and performance conceived as an ongoing process.

Throughout its history, the Institutet för Scenkonst has been a touring group with a base in small villages and communities. Apart from producing our own performances and pedagogical projects, we work internationally by directing performances for other theatre groups and by giving seminars and talks at universities, drama schools, and other situations.

For further reading: Stepping Stones by Ingemar Lindh (forthcoming 2010, Icarus Publishing Enterprise: Holstebro - Malta - Wroclaw); in Swedish: Stenar att gå på (Gidlunds förlag, 2003), and in Italian: Pietre di guado (Bandecchi & Vivaldi, 1998)