Projects 2005

An audio-visual essay, based on research on institutional spaces by Mike Bode and Staffan Schmidt

Curated by Nina Möntmann, NIFCA

The spaces for art have a history of conflicts, not only in the limited meaning that individuals, different groups and cliques has struggled over the right to exhibit, but rather the conflict over a significant space for a societal discourse, and to be more precise: a conflictual discourse over societal space. One main topic of interest is the transitional space for art, provided by society, with a history no longer than modernity itself.

What would the everyday of an art institution look like? The most trivial things of course, having coffee breaks, Monday meetings and answering the mail. But the everydayness of decision making, whose in and whose out, could it be linked to something visual at all?

Six institutions for art education and six exhibition spaces in six different countries and cities have been examined through questions raised and answered by art students and curators. The voices of the interviewed persons accompany visual material (stills and film) from the spaces involved. The questions raised are directed, predominantly, towards the expectations that the interviewed have in connection with the spaces. The aim is to reach out for the broader (societal) ‘function’ of the empty space, provided by the institutions.

The project is realized in collaboration with the following institutions:
Statens Museum for Kunst/the x-room and the Schools of Visual Arts of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen (DK) Kunsthalle Helsinki and Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki (FI) Kunst-Werke and Berlin University of the Arts in Berlin (DE) Contemporary Art Centre and Vilnius Art Academy in Vilnius (LT) National Museum for Contemporary Art and the National Academy of Fine Art in Oslo (NO) Rooseum and Malmö Art Academy in Malmö (SE)



The project exhibitions:

3 November 2004, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Helsinki

Presentation of the work, followed by paneldiscussion on expectations upon art institutions, with the artists Mike Bode and Staffan Schmidt (Malmö), Maija Tanninen (director, Kunsthalle Helsinki), Cecilia Gelin (director, NIFCA), Nina Möntmann (curator, NIFCA), Jani Leinonen (Artist, Helsinki), Paula Toppila (curator, Frame), Pirkko Siitari (director, Kerava Art Museum).


27 November 2004 – 6 January 2005, Kunst-Werke, Berlin
www.kw-berlin.de

5 February – 13 March 2005, Contemporary Art Center Vilnius
www.cac.lt

21 May – 5 June 2005, Rooseum, Malmö
www.rooseum.se

11 January 2006, Secession, Wien, Austria
www.secession.at

• Panel discussion at Rooseum