Projects 2003

The Power of Representation

Critical Forum
Moderated by
critic and curator Simon Sheikh

4 - 8 August 2003
Suomenlinna, Helsinki

NIFCA, the Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art, will arrange a critical forum centered around representation and power, art and politics. The format of this forum will be a so -called think-tank, involving 16 artists and/or theorists from the region and beyond. The format is basically open and will consist of round-table discussions as well as project presentations by everybody involved. All the participants are encouraged to bring materials and to propose a topic for discussion, in the form of an already produced project (a work, a text and so on), an upcoming project or a not-yet-realized project. The idea is to compare notes, so to speak, and to develop new ideas and tools for representation within cultural production, covering issues of representational structures, institutional models, constructions of publics and notions of spectatorship.

The aim of this critical forum is to encourage and develop artistic thinking and reflection in the Nordic area, and to place the Nordic model of cultural production and democratic representation in an international context. What is, for instance, the relationship between artistic practice and political representation? What are the possible positions within the artistic field for political representations and perhaps even actions, and which modes are productive and which counter-productive? What are, for instance, the trappings and potentials of collective works and groupings compared to the role of the singular artist? And, furthermore, what is the relationship between the claimed autonomy of the artwork, and claims for political autonomy?

In our times of expansive global capitalism, corporatization of culture, the demolition of the welfare state and the criminalization of the critical left, it is crucial to discuss and assess modes of critique, participation and resistance in the crossing fields of culture and politics - specifically, the intersection of political representation and the politics of representation, of presentation and participation. Can art production and the cultural field in general be useful, and even ideal for the making of political identities and platforms, as well as for the creation of new political formations? Art matters, and should matter as more than a site for self-expression and/or analysis. To further art and artists’ political potential requires more rather than less thinking, and a consideration of what the terms “politics” and “culture” signify today.

To this end, a group of artists and cultural producers have been invited for the duration of one week to participate in a critical forum, or think-tank, at the remote and idyllic location of Sveaborg/Suomenlinna. The discussions will centre on the various tools and methods of representation available to us; how we can conceive of various modes of address, and how new narratives, and in turn subjectivities, can be constructed. To and for whom do we speak? And what is the differences in our conceptions and invocations of various notions of institutions, audiences, constituencies and communities? If art, be it the single work or the whole institution, can be conceived as a meeting place, how can we mediate between representation and participation? And, finally, what are the similarities and differences between representation and power?


The Power of Representation, the Representation of Power will be arranged August 4-8 2003 in Helsinki, on the island of Suomenlinna. The forum will be moderated by critic and curator Simon Sheikh.


The project is initiated and organized by NIFCA. Coordinated at NIFCA by Marita Muukkonen.