2009/01/19
OCA Semesterplan – WEEK 4
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'
A Two-Day Symposium in Conjunction with 'Whatever Happened to Sex in Scandinavia?'
WEDNESDAY, 21 JANUARY AND THURSDAY, 22 JANUARY 2009
NEDRE GATE 7, OSLO
'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 Grasin 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.
Programme
WEDNESDAY, 21 JANUARY / DAY 1
Morning session
10:00: Introduction
OCA Director, Marta Kuzma and OCA
Associate Curator, Pablo Lafuente
10:30: Female Representations in Scandinavian
Politics and Culture
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.
Feminism, Socialism and Sexual Politics in
Sweden
Gertrud Sandqvist, Professor in the theory and
history of ideas of visual art at Lund University, Sweden,
investigates how closely connected sexual politics were with both
feminism and socialism in Sweden.
Art, Emancipation and Pornography
The crossovers and close connections between art, pornography and
politics in Denmark will be discussed by Rune
Gade, Associate Professor at the Department of Arts and
Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen, as well as the
intricate history of censorship and its failures that lead to the
changes in the late 1960s.
Afternoon Session
14:00: Art is Pop, Co-ritus is Art:
Progressivity as Artistic Strategy in Scandinavian Action Art in
the 1960s and 70s
Knut Ove Arntzen, Associate Professor in theatre
studies at the University of Bergen, Norway, 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 based in Christiania – art practice related to Situationist
action art and inspired by Jørgen Nash and Jens Jørgen Thorsen's
Co-ritus manifesto from December 1962. A discussion with the
artist Elsebet Rahlff will follow.
15:45: 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
through 1960s radical culture, including Öyvind Fahlström's
invented languages, sound collages and concrete poetry, the
'Text-Sound Composition' developed at Sweden's EMS, Åke Hodell's
progressive radio plays, and the dawn of electronic music through
Erkki Kurenniemi's invented instruments.
17:15: Screening
Du gamla, du fria, dir. Öyvind Fahlström (1971, 35mm,
colour, 100min).*
THURSDAY, 22 JANUARY – DAY 1
Morning Session
10:00: Introduction
OCA Associate Curator, Pablo Lafuente
10.15: The Gras Period
The Norwegian Gras Group (1970-74) are seen as the most influential
artists' collective in Norway of this period. This discussion
between Per Gunnar
Eeg-Tverbakk and Morten
Krohg will explore how the movement evolved, and the
changes they proposed in relation to the current institutional
climate, in order to consider the possibilities of a similar
engagement with structural change today.
11.45: Alternative Modes of
Distribution
A Panel Discussion: 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, and how
these strategies related to contestatory positions (against the
war, imperialism or elitism) or new modes of behaviour (social,
political and sexual).
Afternoon Session
14:30: The Female Christ and Sleeping Beauty:
Neo-avant-garde, Feminism and the Politics of the
Body
Author and researcher 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: Art, Performance and the Body: Barbara
T. Smith and the West Coast scene in the 1960s and
70s
Artist Barbara T. Smith will discuss her
practice and her engagement with the West Coast art scene in
California during the 1960s and 70s, focusing on the new forms of
performance art, participation, gender, spirituality and the
body.
17:00 Screening
Schmeerguntz, dir. Gunvor Nelson, (1966, 16mm, black and
white, 15min)
Take Off, dir. Gunvor Nelson, (1972, 16mm, black and
white, 15min).
Followed by a discussion with Gunvor Nelson about her work.
* This film will be screened in Swedish without subtitles.
Please click here for more information and for more information for bios of the speakers.