'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 byGruppe 66 and Konkret Analyse in Bergen; the pioneering experiments with sound in the work of Öyvind Fahlström andErkki Kurenniemi; the innovative distribution strategies employed by artists internationally at the time; and their exploration of relational activities and notions of the collective.
