Still from Du gamla, du fria
(1972), dir. Öyvind Fahlström
Courtesy of Collection Sharon Avery–Fahlström
'Art, the Social and Gender Politics in the 1960s and 70s' is a symposium investigating the political and gender implications of artistic and cultural practice of the 1960s and 70s, in Scandinavia and internationally. The symposium is part of the research and exhibition project 'Whatever Happened to Sex in Scandinavia?', organised by OCA, and will include lectures and discussions that develop issues explored in the exhibition currently on show at Nedre gate 7. These will focus on specific political and cultural events of the time, including sex reform movements, activist art and feminist art practice, as well as individual presentations of work by artists who were either implicated in these movements or whose work reflect the spirit of the time.
The papers will examine, among others, artists' role in the change of pornography laws in Scandinavia; the activities of Gras in Norway, both as an artists' collective and cultural and political activists; the avant-garde exhibition-events organised by Gruppe 66 and Konkret Analyse in Bergen; the pioneering experiments with sound in the work of Öyvind Fahlström and Erkki Kurenniemi; the innovative distribution strategies employed by artists internationally at the time; and their exploration of relational activities and notions of the collective.
Admission is free, but attendance to the event needs to be confirmed by RSVP to Suzana Martins at suzana@oca.no.
10:00
Introduction: Marta Kuzma, OCA's Director, Pablo Lafuente, OCA's Associate Curator.
10:30
Female Representations in Scandinavian Politics and Culture
Wencke Mühleisen – Sexual Politics in Norway
Wencke Mühleisen, Director of the unit for Gender Studies
at the University of Stavanger, Norway will examine how Norwegian sexualities have been shaped since the 1950s and 60s
through three main factors: the processes of hetero-normalisation and assimilation promoted by the Norwegian state;
the counter-strategies to this dominant normalisation; and the civil-rights movements and identity politics.
Gertrud Sandqvist – Feminism, Socialism and Sexual Politics in Sweden
'I dream of the day when every new born child is welcome, when men and women are equal, and when sexuality is an expression
of intimacy, joy and tenderness.' The motto belongs to Elise Ottesen-Jensen (Ottar), the legendary sex educator and
syndicalist who founded RFSU (Riksförbundet för Sexuell Upplysning), probably the single most important
institution in Sweden when it comes to questions around sexual politics, and the reason why Sweden from early on
had sexual education as a subject in elementary school. Ottar's statement shows, as Gertrud Sandqvist's paper will
investigate how closely connected sexual politics were with both feminism and socialism in Sweden.
Rune Gade – Art, Emancipation and Pornography
In the late 1960s, Denmark was the first country worldwide to repeal laws on obscenity, thereby de facto liberalising pornography and
legalising its production. Rune Gade's presentation will examine the central role artists and artworks played
in the so-called liberation of pornography in Denmark, focusing on the discursive formation of a rhetoric of emancipation
springing from youth culture, artists and politicians. The crossovers and close connections between art, pornography and
politics will be discussed, as well as the intricate history of censorship and its failures, leading to the changes in the
late 1960s.
A panel discussion will follow.
13:00
Lunch Break
14:00
Knut Ove Arntzen –
Art is Pop, Co-ritus Is Art: Progressivity as Artistic Strategy in Scandinavian Action Art
in the 1960s and 70s
Knut Ove Arntzen's paper will focus on the work of Drakabygget in Skåne, the pan-Scandinavian
Asger Jorn, Gruppe 66 and Konkret Analyse from Norway, as well as the Solvognen Theatre Company from Christiania –
art practice related to Situationist action art and inspired by Jørgen Nash and Jens Jørgen Thorsen's Co-ritus
manifesto from December 1962. The work of these artists, like that of Kjartan Slettemark and the Icelandic Sigurdur Gudmundsson,
reflected an anxiety in relation to consumerist culture and the then-new leisure society. The paper will pose the following
questions: Was the future 'Art is Pop or Co-ritus is Art'? And what happened to art when it became instrumentalised by
Marxist-Leninist groups in the 1970s?
A discussion with the artist Elsebet Rahlff will follow, relating to the activities of Gruppe 66, Konkret Analyse and Samliv.
15:45
Anne Hilde Neset – Verbal Voltage and Sonic Shocks: Sound Poetry and Early Electronic Music in
1960s Scandinavia
Deputy editor of The Wire magazine, Anne Hilde Neset will explore the sonic undercurrents flowing though 1960s
radical culture, including Öyvind Fahlström's invented languages, sound collages and concrete poetry, the 'Text-Sound Composition'
developed at Sweden's EMS (Electroacoustic Music Centre), Åke Hodell's progressive radio plays, and the dawn of electronic
music through Erkki Kurenniemi's invented instruments.
17:00
Break
17:15
Screening: Du gamla, du fria, dir. Öyvind Fahlström (1971, 35mm, colour, 100min).
This film will be screened in Swedish without subtitles.
10:00
Introduction: Pablo Lafuente
10.15
Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk and Morten Krohg – The Gras Period
The Norwegian Gras Group, which operated for four years (1970-74), is seen as the most influential artists' collective in Norway
during this period. The individual members of the group promoted artistic expressions that, in a Norwegian context, broke with the
strong French influence prevalent at the time, revolting against the traditional role of the artist, and aligning themselves with
the critique of the system that typified many of the art practices of this era. In the wake of the French student revolution,
the members of Gras fought for the democratisation of institutions and workers' conditions, putting the emphasis on the restructuring
of artists' organisations, providing the basis for the Norwegian government's cultural policies and ensuring the rights that
Norwegian artists currently enjoy. Formulations we often hear today relate to artists questioning dominant societal structures,
but the Gras members had other ambitions: they wanted to change society and their surrounding community, particularly those
structures that set the parameters for art production. This discussion will explore how this happened, and how the changes
manifest themselves today, in an effort to analyse whether it is possible or desirable in the current institutional climate
to imagine a similar engagement with structural change.
11.45
Alternative Modes of Distribution
A Panel Discussion with Thomas Bayrle, Dan Graham, Marta Kuzma and Hito Steyerl
The participants of this panel will discuss the alternative modes of distribution that were employed in the 1960s and 70s
in the form of posters, pamphlets and publications, and how these were related to contestatory positions (against the war,
imperialism or elitism) or new modes of behaviour (social, political and sexual).
13:30
Lunch Break
14:30
Birgitte Anderberg –
The Female Christ and Sleeping Beauty: Neo-avant-garde, Feminism and the Politics
of the Body
The encounter between neo-avant-garde art practice and the feminist movement in the 1960s and 70s produced a field of
tensions and conflicts. In her paper, Birgitte Anderberg will provide an overview of the issues at stake and the
strategies adopted by feminist art practice in Denmark during the 1970s – especially with regards to the body
as a major aesthetic, figurative and political site.
A discussion with the artist Kirsten Justesen will follow.
16:00
Barbara T. Smith – Art, Performance and the Body: Barbara T. Smith and the West Coast
scene in the 1960s and 70s
In this presentation, artist Barbara T. Smith will discuss her practice and elaborate on her
engagement with the Californian art scene in the 1960s and 70s, focusing on the new forms of performance art,
participation, gender, spirituality and the body.
17:00
Screening: Schmeerguntz, (1966, 16mm, black and white, 15min) and
Take Off, dir. Gunvor Nelson, (1972, 16mm, black and white, 15min).
A discussion with Gunvor Nelson will follow.
Click here for speakers' bios.