Opacity

Current considerations on art institutions and the economy of desire

Opening: Friday 15 April 8 pm
Preopening and launching of the Opacity-fanzine: Thursday 14 April 8 pm
16.4 – 15.5 -05

Kajsa Dahlberg
Danger Museum
(Øyvind Renberg og Miho Shimizu).
Markus Degerman
Stephan Dillemuth
Gardar Eide Einarsson
Sofie Thorsen

Curated by Nina Möntmann and Trude Iversen
Opacity explores in what way today’s art institutions are used and challenged within artistic processes. The starting point is the observation that institutions have changed after the institutional critique in the nineties as well as in the seventies. Today, a critique is no longer directed against the institution in order to deconstruct it. Instead, a certain opacity, which has been criticized in the work of powerful institutions, can on the other hand be useful for smaller institutions, in order to try out new forms of collaboration both between different positions in the art field as well as in other societal areas, creating an alternative agenda for institutional work.

The terms autonomy, freedom, internal process and uncertainty are discussed in relation to opacity, as well as the history of critical and affirmative work respectively within institutions: What happened in the eighties and nineties to institutional models in relation to notions of democracy? Not until now have we reached a point where the new forms of institutions of the nineties can be evaluated. Considering the internal perspective of the artist as an involved team mate in cultural production, certain questions arise: How can an art institution be used from within- as an arena or a tool for re-politicization, taking into consideration both the factors of interest and desire? Where do the possibilities lie, and what do the presumable failures tell us about the societal role and range of the diverse art institutions?

The exhibition proposes and discusses a collaborative and productive model, which researches current conditions of institutional work and develops alternative strategies – be they activist, appropriated, mocking, actual or purely utopian.

Opacity is initiated by Nina Möntmann, NIFCA
Produced by NIFCA and presented by UKS
Graphical concept: Halvor Bodin

Gallery hours: Tue-Fri 12-17, Sat-Sun 12-16

UKS – Unge Kunstneres Samfund/Young Artists Society
Lakkegata 55 D, 0187 Oslo, Norge
www.uks.no
info@uks.no
Tel +47 22 19 50 50