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By Anneli Bäckman ©.
16-17 April 2010
Anneli Bäckman, Stockholm (curator, wip:sthlm / freelance)
The purpose with the visit to UKS was to attend the Oslo Speculations and to meet with a couple of Oslo based artists, Anders Smebye and Stian Ålandsvik.
Friday 16 April. Oslo Speculations.
The seminar weekend intended to focus on speculations as the process of thinking or meditating on a subject, bringing in a broad scope of perspectives from artists, curators, critics, a Zen priest and others who could elaborate on the proposed topic. However, an unexpected ash cloud erupted from an Icelandic volcano, bringing the travelling world to a standstill and hence many of the invited participants were unable to make their way to Oslo. The organisers adapted to the force majeure situation and squeezed the remains of the program into one afternoon and evening instead of two days. The cloud of uncertainty forced a lot of improvisation and last minute changes to the programme contributing to an unpredictable yet relaxed atmosphere.
There were a few talks within the trimmed down programme that raised some, for me, crucial questions on the motivations and realities within the world of artistic and curatorial practice, as well as offered alternative views on the basic fundaments in what we are doing and why. The following three talks and discussions stayed with me long after the Oslo Speculations concluded.
Marta Kuzma, Pablo Lafuente and Henrik Plenge Jakobsenʼs joint discussion presented a few interesting reflections on the art world whilst cooking food and inserting You Tube clips with classical TV cooking shows.
Amongst the passing of ingredients, some critical arguments were made on the ever-increasing speed of production and the inevitable masses of
administration that tend to be the reality for artists and curators of today. The pressure to conform to the systems implied by schools, institutions for funding and other parties causes a consensus culture and weakens the anarchist nerve. Then, what is the point? And are we really free to do what we want?
The Zen Buddhist priest, Sante Poromaa, introduced the thought of nonspeculation, and the challenging concept of non-thinking to the seminar audience. The talk focused on his personal journey that led him to choose a life that aspires towards nothingness. The refreshing input of this meditationbased philosophy into the sphere of the art world promoted a sense of scaling down to bare essentials, a critical stance to the never ceasing flow of thoughts as well as to find a space for nothing to take place. The processes and techniques in mediation seemed surprisingly relevant to the making or producing art. What are our thoughts informed by? And who are we?
Michel Auder who has gathered an impressive archive of video and film
projects that to a large extent reflect his personal life, presented a more
intense approach to the aspect of “doing”. The lifelong urge to experiment with the moving image has resulted in numerous autobiographical chronicles, documentations, travel logs, portraits of friends, etc. that mirrors the artistʼs own life experience. Auderʼs work is his ongoing speculations. In contrast to the reality of most young artists as discussed during the Kuzma et al. discussion, Auder never seems to have bothered with applications or trying to fit into any type of system. A truly inspirational talk with a lot of anarchist nerve.
Saturday 17 April. Stian Ålandsvik.
In several of Stian Ålandsvikʼs works, the travel and transportation industry is dismantled and alienated through his subjective research methods and arbitrary engineer approach. In the work Traces, the infrastructure surrounding the construction of the giant aircraft Airbus is documented through a series of photographs. The underlying EU politics and economy demands that the various parts of the aircraft is constructed in different European cities and then transported to one place for assembly. Considering the environmental effects of the enormous logistic, there is a great sense of irrationality that comes along with the overall structure.
In another work, Visions of transit from two pasts, Ålandsvik uses an old world map from the 1920ʼs and draw lines between cities according to flight routes. The result shows intense drawing over Europe and North America whilst certain parts of the world have hardly any drawn lines. Itʼs a simple yet effective way to present the division of the world economy.
Saturday 17 April. Anders Smebye.
As the Oslo Speculations had just finished, the discussion mainly came to focus on Anders Smebyeʼs project space Bastard that he ran in his studio between 2008-2009. The space became the hub of a small social scene that formed around exhibitions, projects, parties and talks. The final activity being a marathon seminar The Parallel Action that lasted for 37.5 hours and presented around 30 talks, screenings, presentations and more. The sheer length and intensity of the programme that in different ways touched upon the theme of Work seemed positively overwhelming. In order to reclaim his studio, Smebye continued with his own work involving textile material that spread out and used all floor space.Connected Event:
_____OSLO SPECULATIONS
