[artinfo] Norway’s state funding and the curious case of new formalism

[Nikolett Eross]

*Norway’s state funding and the curious case of new formalism *

A lecture by Anthea Buys



2015, 21 May, 6pm

*tranzit.hu <http://tranzit.hu> / *1068 Budapest, Király utca 102.





What happens to art when an art scene that enshrines Scandinavian democracy
gets an injection of money from the state? What happens to art when, years
later, that resource comes under threat from a new conservative government?
This is a presentation of some exploratory research about possible
connections between the dominant state funding system in Norway and the
popularity of abstraction and formalism, particularly amongst early-career
artists. With no art market to speak of, what are Norway’s new zombies
feeding on?



Anthea Buys (b. 1984, Johannesburg) is Director of the Hordaland
kunstsenter in Bergen, Norway, a contemporary art institution that focuses
on the production of new works and exhibitions, critical discourse, and
international exchange. Prior to this she was a visiting PhD Scholar at
Columbia University in the City of New York, and an independent curator and
writer. She has curated exhibitions for the Palais de Tokyo in Paris
(2013), Wiels Centre for Contemporary Art in Brussels (2013), and the South
African National Gallery in Cape Town, where she worked as Curator of
Contemporary Art (2011-2012). She is also a research fellow at the Visual
Identities in Art and Design Research Centre at the University of
Johannesburg.