Momentum – A Nordic Festival of Favoured Nations
Christian Schoen
Momentum – A Nordic Festival of Favoured Nations
The small industrial city of Moss, an hour’s drive from Oslo, is hosting its fifth art biennial. Momentum 2009 – Favoured Nations has “an acute eye for what is Nordic”, as the festival’s director Dag Sveinar states in the catalogue’s preface. Indeed, Momentum 2009 focuses on 31 artists born in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland (with the exceptions of artists from Bosnia and The Netherlands). But as Ásmundur Ásmundsson, a participating artist from Reykjavík, rightly asked in his opening speech-performance (see the script in this issue), why were artists from the Faeroe Islands and Greenland missing? Even though his question was a rhetorical one, it begs the general question of the nature of Nordic identity. What are the unifying aspects of “the Nordic”? Or is it just a brand revealing its meaning through structures of economy, funding and marketing rather than society and culture?
The curators Lina Džuverović and Stina Högkvist chose a title for the show which – although catchy – requires some explanation. Referring to certain nations as “favoured” ones first plays on the expectations of “the Nordic” as something cool, well designed and fashionable that stands out against the average quality of the international mainstream. But in fact, “favoured nations” is a phrase borrowed from international trade agreements, a legal term used in contracts to request equal treatment for all parties. For the curators, this term acts as a springboard for highlighting issues of equality, access, and the ways in which those involved in artistic production are treated. The idea of Favoured Nations is a methodology and not a theme, as Lina Džuverović states. Consequently, each artist received the same participation fee of 10.000 NOK (approx. 1.100 EUR), in line with the utopian ideal of equal treatment.
Although not meant as a theme, the festival’s title is reflected in several works by artists who seem to have taken up the thread. Fia Backström (SE), for example, analyses marketing rhetoric in a large-scale video installation, and Libia Castro + Ólafur Ólafsson present their most recent video work “Lobbyists” – produced for their Prix de Rome-participation this year, which deals with the hidden structures at the EU in Brussels and Strasbourg.
The curators decided not to define “Nordic”, but rather used the term as parameters for their eclectic show. The exhibition is entirely based on their studio visits across the Nordic region and some satellite cities such as Berlin, London and New York. What results is an accumulation of a number of single artistic works and statements related more aesthetically than thematically. As the visitor passes through gloomy spaces where video works and installations are combined, it is impossible not to think of the Scandinavian clichés of mysticism and dark romanticism. Artists such as Mats Adelman (SE), Andreas Eriksson (SE), Hannaleena Heiska (FI), Eline McGeorge (NO) and Salla Tykkä (FI) partially transform these spaces into a Nordic panopticon. Some projects stand out because of their experimental character, such as Goodiepal featuring Martha Hviid and Tordis Berstrand (DK). The Danish-Faroese (sic!) group established an electronic music workshop focusing on collective composition, notation and time. Icelandic artist Helgi Þórsson also follows a cross-media approach: in the centre of his room-filling installation stands a small hippie van which took him from Reykjavík to Moss. In connection with paintings, a wheel of fortune and plaster beavers with lampshades on their heads, the entire installation hovers between Dada-expressionism and humorous self-analysis.
Some artists also found their place in public space. Lyric works by Karl Holmqvist (SE), for example, can be found both at Galleri F15 and in the pedestrian areas of Moss. Berlin-based Icelandic artist Darri Lorenzen realized a project for a commercial movie theatre near Momentum Kunsthall. What seems at first sight to be an experimental film reveals itself as an attempt to represent the theatrical spaces behind and in front of the movie screen as well as the fact of the viewer’s presence inside it.
The strongest presence at Momentum 2009 is that of Icelandic artist Ásmundur Ásmundsson, not only because of his irritating opening speech, but also because two of his conceptual approaches found monumental form in both venues of the festival. A huge concrete sculpture by the artist welcomes the visitor at Momentum Kunsthall: Ásmundur had children from Moss dig a hole on a site he selected; afterwards, the hole was cast in concrete and displayed as sculpture, along with a documentary film of the children digging the hole. After the exhibition, the lump of concrete will be returned to its crater. The project – a repetition of the hole he made for his solo show at the Reykjavík Art Museum at the beginning of this year – can be read as a critical commentary on the current state of emergency in his home country. Additionally, in the beautiful park at Galleri F15 in Jeløy, facing the Oslo Fjord, Ásmundur piled up a pyramid of empty oil barrels. During the vernissage he had a cement truck pour a constant flow of concrete into the top barrel. As it filled, it overflowed into the barrels below, much like a champagne pyramid at a voluptuous party. Ásmundur closes the circle of relations between money, society and culture, revealing that the idea of favoured nations will remain a utopian one.
Momentum – 5th Nordien Biennial of Contemporary Art
29 August – 18 October 2009
Moss, Norway
www.momentum.no
The curators Lina Džuverović and Stina Högkvist chose a title for the show which – although catchy – requires some explanation. Referring to certain nations as “favoured” ones first plays on the expectations of “the Nordic” as something cool, well designed and fashionable that stands out against the average quality of the international mainstream. But in fact, “favoured nations” is a phrase borrowed from international trade agreements, a legal term used in contracts to request equal treatment for all parties. For the curators, this term acts as a springboard for highlighting issues of equality, access, and the ways in which those involved in artistic production are treated. The idea of Favoured Nations is a methodology and not a theme, as Lina Džuverović states. Consequently, each artist received the same participation fee of 10.000 NOK (approx. 1.100 EUR), in line with the utopian ideal of equal treatment.
Although not meant as a theme, the festival’s title is reflected in several works by artists who seem to have taken up the thread. Fia Backström (SE), for example, analyses marketing rhetoric in a large-scale video installation, and Libia Castro + Ólafur Ólafsson present their most recent video work “Lobbyists” – produced for their Prix de Rome-participation this year, which deals with the hidden structures at the EU in Brussels and Strasbourg.
The curators decided not to define “Nordic”, but rather used the term as parameters for their eclectic show. The exhibition is entirely based on their studio visits across the Nordic region and some satellite cities such as Berlin, London and New York. What results is an accumulation of a number of single artistic works and statements related more aesthetically than thematically. As the visitor passes through gloomy spaces where video works and installations are combined, it is impossible not to think of the Scandinavian clichés of mysticism and dark romanticism. Artists such as Mats Adelman (SE), Andreas Eriksson (SE), Hannaleena Heiska (FI), Eline McGeorge (NO) and Salla Tykkä (FI) partially transform these spaces into a Nordic panopticon. Some projects stand out because of their experimental character, such as Goodiepal featuring Martha Hviid and Tordis Berstrand (DK). The Danish-Faroese (sic!) group established an electronic music workshop focusing on collective composition, notation and time. Icelandic artist Helgi Þórsson also follows a cross-media approach: in the centre of his room-filling installation stands a small hippie van which took him from Reykjavík to Moss. In connection with paintings, a wheel of fortune and plaster beavers with lampshades on their heads, the entire installation hovers between Dada-expressionism and humorous self-analysis.
Some artists also found their place in public space. Lyric works by Karl Holmqvist (SE), for example, can be found both at Galleri F15 and in the pedestrian areas of Moss. Berlin-based Icelandic artist Darri Lorenzen realized a project for a commercial movie theatre near Momentum Kunsthall. What seems at first sight to be an experimental film reveals itself as an attempt to represent the theatrical spaces behind and in front of the movie screen as well as the fact of the viewer’s presence inside it.
The strongest presence at Momentum 2009 is that of Icelandic artist Ásmundur Ásmundsson, not only because of his irritating opening speech, but also because two of his conceptual approaches found monumental form in both venues of the festival. A huge concrete sculpture by the artist welcomes the visitor at Momentum Kunsthall: Ásmundur had children from Moss dig a hole on a site he selected; afterwards, the hole was cast in concrete and displayed as sculpture, along with a documentary film of the children digging the hole. After the exhibition, the lump of concrete will be returned to its crater. The project – a repetition of the hole he made for his solo show at the Reykjavík Art Museum at the beginning of this year – can be read as a critical commentary on the current state of emergency in his home country. Additionally, in the beautiful park at Galleri F15 in Jeløy, facing the Oslo Fjord, Ásmundur piled up a pyramid of empty oil barrels. During the vernissage he had a cement truck pour a constant flow of concrete into the top barrel. As it filled, it overflowed into the barrels below, much like a champagne pyramid at a voluptuous party. Ásmundur closes the circle of relations between money, society and culture, revealing that the idea of favoured nations will remain a utopian one.
Momentum – 5th Nordien Biennial of Contemporary Art
29 August – 18 October 2009
Moss, Norway
www.momentum.no
List: Icelandic Art News is published by the Center for Icelandic Art, a cooperative project of Iceland's museums and artists' organisations. List is edited by Christian Schoen and Jón Proppé. If you wish not to receive announcements of our new issues - or you want to contact us for any other reason - please send a mail to list@cia.is.
