Projects 2001

See Through

A NIFCA Seminar on Power Relations in the Art World



Keynote speakers
Mika Hannula
Stephan Dillemuth
Anthony Davies
Katrina Brown

Moderator
Umayya Abu-Hanna, journalist, Helsinki

Observers
Niilo Kauppi, researcher, University of Helsinki
Franco Bianchini (t.b.c.), professor, De Montfort University, Leicester
Matias Faldbakken, artist, Oslo
Gardar Einarsson, artist, Oslo
Pauline van Mourik Broekman, artist and editor of MUTE magazine, London
Lolita Jablonskiene, director, Vilnius Contemporary Art Centre
Vasif Kortun, curator, Istanbul
Jakob Fabricius, curator, Copenhagen
Morten Skriver (t.b.c.), artist, Copenhagen
Maria Lind, curator, Stockholm
Mats Stjernstedt, curator, Stockholm
Gavin Jantjes (t.b.c.), director, Henie Onstad Kunstcenter, Oslo

PROGRAMME

SATURDAY, 16 JUNE
16.00 reception at Göteborgs Konsthall

SUNDAY, 17 JUNE
09.00 - 10.00 registration at Valand School of Fine Arts
10.00 - 10.30 welcoming address: Valand School of Fine Arts / Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art
10.30 - 12.30 Mika Hannula: Self-understanding as a process / Katrina Brown: Artspace or ourspace?
12.30 - 14.00 break
14.00 - 16.30 Stephan Dillemuth: Corporate Rokoko / Anthony Davies: The surge to merge culture with the economy (London in the 1990s).
16.30 - 17.00 registration to workshops
17.00 - 19.00 visit to Göteborg International Art Biennial
19.00 reception at Goteborgs Konsthall

MONDAY, 18 JUNE
10.00 - 12.30 workshops hosted by keynote speakers
12.30 - 14.00 break
14.00 - 17.00 panel discussion & conclusion moderator: Umayya Abu-Hanna

15 invited international observers will also give their perspectives to the discussion.

Mika Hannula
Director, Fine Arts Academy, Helsinki Finland Free lance journalist
Reviews editor on NU - Nordic Art Magazine

subject
Self-Understanding as a Process

- the idea of the talk is to focus on the concept of power from the view of a socially aware and situated individual. The starting point is self-understanding, and power as a means to tell ones story - a story always being bound to one past and connected to other peoples stories. It is power as in the ability to describe oneself and ones surrounding in accordance with your values, wants, wishes and fears. An endlessly continuing process in which the task is to participate and to try to make an affect in the hermeneutical circle - the circle within which content of concepts is shaped, made and maintained. The question my talk brings up is what is the role of this kind activity, this kind of telling stories in creating a civil society based on the concepts of reciprocal respect, mutual recognition, principle of love and principle of non-violence.


Stephan Dillemuth
Artists and researcher, London

subject
Transparent? Art world? A new spirit in artists self empowerment!

So far we can only speak of art when it intends to be seen and discussed in public. Art is an attempt to influence people's taste and thinking. All art is therefore political, but it has to be asked which politics does it represent. These politics are never outside of power structures, they operate within.
I expect form art that it shows a certain awareness of this fact and that it sees itself as a force, in relation to power.

Art and research are clearly artificial constructions, models that have to know about their own constructedness. Here the main goal cannot be to achieve the trinity of the essential truth-good-beautiful, the goal is rather a purpose, to be negotiated on the following terms:
It has to be different enough from the existing constructions of its time. And because of its difference must try and oppose power structures, the reigning ideas of its time. If it succeeds, it must be opposed again and immediately...

That makes clear on which side art and research stands. All that stuff about `autonomy' and/or `freedom' of the arts is never neutral, but political per se... (see above)

But what matters is not so much what I say here, it matters what I do with my art, what method I use, what medium, and what message would be.

As an artist invited to a panel about (transparent) power structures in the art I have to talk about how I talk, with my work... not in order to advertise it, but to use it as an example of how it is situated in power structures.

I want to talk about the relative autonomy of the different group-projects that I was involved with over the past 12 years in order to emphasise the need for self-organised structures, research and a critical agenda in the shadow of power structures:
The projects are: Friesenwall 120, an artist-space and archive in Koln, Germany, (1990-1994).
UTV, a model for an artists&activists TV station, based on a flea-market economy (1995-1997).
My research in 1994/95 about a contemporary model of the academy and, from 1996 onwards, about the `Corporate Rokoko' i.e. how the global changes in economy start shaping the public sphere and the art differently. I will finally introduce my recent research project at Kunsthogskolen i Bergen, `The Akademi and The Corporate Public' and 'Art Production in a Dramatised Field'. Both of which have one point of departure in common, that is the present shift in the idea of a public sphere and its consequences for the significance of art in our time.

'The Akademi and The Corporate Public' is the investigation into the status questionis of a public in change. It is the mapping of a new phenomenon, which is a shift in the idea of the public sphere induced by a corporate world economy, that results in a different function of art and a different role of the artist in this society.

'Art Production in a Dramatised Field' is the necessary second part. It is research as an attempt of artistic transformation, to dramatise the investigated problem as part of a counter strategy. The idea is to induce the idea of a dramatised field as an exemplification, which renders visible aspects in the field of the fine arts and its dependency on a corporate public that would otherwise remain unnoticed.

The stage enters as an analogy drawn not only in order to see late capitalism as a game but also, and very importantly, in order to found the attempt to stage a new game with different rules. In this new game, we have to see ourselves not only as viewers, or as powerless participants in some kind of pre-ordained
reality scenario, but also as part of the game itself. The chance is that perhaps then we can begin to act out our own participation. With the (artificial) device of a stage in place, we can see ourselves as artists appearing in a dramatised environment where we can try and alter the script and the props, and then see if this helps us to shape a different audience. With a different audience in place, perhaps we can effect an exit from the aforementioned 'game' and thenceforth continue our work as artists outside of its strictures.

But it is important that, through this research project, the introduction of 'theatre' into the fine arts context can lead to a new possibility for reflection upon the fine arts context itself.
So theatre becomes the main device in this research; it becomes almost synonymous with the artistic research because it enables us to throw a reserved and critical view onto our objective. On top of this, it can even assist us to catch sight of the action of this view being thrown.

As with all the arts we will not deny an entertaining effect, but use it!

Footnote:
COAL BY ANY OTHER NAME
Stages, Dramas, Workshops and the Workers Theatre in the 1870s... A project at American Fine Arts in New York. www.societyofcontrol.com

RESEARCH:
The Academy and the Corporate Public
Art Production in a Dramatised Field
www.societyofcontrol.com

Here you'll find texts by Hans Haacke, Andrea Fraser, Antony Davies & Simon Ford, Alice Creischer & Andreas Siekmann, Hubertus Butin, Anders Eiebakke. Interviews around and about the Norwegian Public, Postgraduate and Corporate Academies...


Anthony Davies
Artist and researcher, London

subject
Anthony Davies has with Simon Ford investigated the future trends and developments in art world, new strategies and ways of art networking the changes in the relationships between art practitioners, art institutions, politicians and corporate bodies and the possibilities of practicing art within the new situtation.


Katrina Brown
Director, Dundee Contemporary Arts

subject
'Artspace or ourspace?'

My paper would be on the need for good healthy organisation to be grounded in people, whether artist-run or not, and not simply buildings. Space and place are critical but not with out the social interface. I would probably want to talk about the use of small-scale, artist-run, low cost initiatives to support cultural economies and what happens when the originators of the small-scale want or need to move up-scale. This would be based, of course, on my own experience at Transmission, the cultural situation for visual art in Scotland (as a small European country) in general and of course my experience of setting up DCA. I would also like to talk about an exhibition we made at Tramway called Trust as part of this (2 curators and 4 artists selected and organized it in 1995). I guess it's primarily about ownership.