Projects 1999

PRESENTATION

"Changing the System?" is conceived as a temporary platform for intense discussions between experienced artists, from various generations and countries, and as an opportunity for them to publicly state their opinions. This is not going to be a regular panel discussion, nor a series of lectures, nor a presentation of individual practices, nor an arts politics congress. "Changing the System?" is an experiment.

"Changing the System?" is organised by the Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art (NIFCA) in Helsinki, in collaboration with the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, the Malm Art Academy in Malmö, Sweden, and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam.

This event can be seen as a follow-up of "Stopping the Process?", an international curators' seminar organised by NIFCA at Lofoten in Norway in September 1997. Then, we focused on the exhibition-makers.

Now we focus on the artists. We want to discuss artistic practice today and artists' views on the system in which they work. We want the discussions to bring out ideas and proposals towards future change in the artworld. As a point of departure, we have proposed some questions:

WHAT DO CONCEPTS LIKE THESE MEAN FOR INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS? HOW DO THEY
CHANGE TODAY?

Artistic practice and the creative process. The author. Various functions and roles for artists. Collaboration and networks. The production of meaning and the reception of artists' work. The artworld. The art context. Professionalism. Artists' careers. Visibility.

HOW DO THESE COMPONENTS IN THE CONTEMPORARY ART SYSTEM FUNCTION? HOW
DEPENDENT ARE ARTISTS ON THEM? ARE THEY OPEN TO CHANGE?

The studio. The curator. The exhibition. The institution. The market. The critic. The school.

WHAT CAN BE CHANGED IN THE CONTEMPORARY ART SYSTEM? WHAT ARE THE NEW
POSSIBILITIES?

We have invited a number of artists, curators and critics to gather in Rotterdam for a couple of days, develop these questions and prepare the debate.

Text by Anders Kreuger, Director at NIFCA in 1999


A Publication documenting the seminar was published in 1999.

READ MORE about the publication

• Changing the System?: Discussion topics
• Changing the System?: List of participants