[artinfo] NIFCA presents Opacity: Current Considerations on Art Institutions and the Economy of Desire

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NIFCA

Opacity
Current Considerations on Art Institutions and the Economy of Desire

Participating artists: Kajsa Dahlberg, Danger Museum (Oyvind Renberg 
& Miho Shimizo), Markus Degerman, Stephan Dillemuth, Gardar Eide 
Einarsson, Sofie Thorsen

15 April-15 June 2005 at UKS,
Unge Kunsternes Samfund, Lakkegata 55 D, 0187 Oslo
Opening 15 April, 8 pm
Preopening and launching of the Opacity-fanzine April 14, 8 pm

Curated by Nina Montmann and Trude Iversen.

Opacity is initiated by Nina Montmann, NIFCA, produced by NIFCA and 
presented by UKS.

<http://www.uks.no>http://www.uks.no
<http://www.nifca.org>http://www.nifca.org

This exhibition 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 70s, as well as, in the 90s. What 
could be the future impact of current critical tendencies? Today a 
critique is no more put 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 between different positions in the art field (artists, 
curators, academics or activists), creating an alternative agenda for 
institutional work.

The project is developed in a close collaboration between the 
curators and the artists. Therefore several workshops have been 
scheduled. The terms autonomy, freedom, internal process, uncertainty 
were discussed in relation to opacity. As well as the history of 
critical and affirmative work respectively within institutions: What 
happened in the 80s and 90s to institutional models in relation to 
notions of democracy? Only now the new forms of institutions of the 
90s are at a point, where you can evaluate them.

The exhibition is not seen as the culmination point of these 
discussions, rather as an integral part of an ongoing process. 
Considering the internal perspective of the artist as an involved 
team mate in cultural production, the question arises, how can an art 
institution be used from within - as an arena or a tool for 
re-politicization. Where lie the possibilities, and what do the 
presumable failures tell us about the societal role and
reaching area 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.

By the end of 2005 a comprehensive reader on current institutional 
conditions and the role of institutions within artistic processes 
will be published by NIFCA, edited by Nina Montmann, which will also 
contain a documentation of the project "Opacity".


<http://www.uks.no>http://www.uks.no
<http://www.nifca.org>http://www.nifca.org