Office for Contemporary Art Norway Annual Report 2011 Director’s Foreword 4 5 The following is an excerpt of a In the year 2011, on behalf of the As a national representation, we presentation made by OCA’s Director Office for Contemporary Art Norway, looked back to the historical for Marta Kuzma in Venice within the we introduced the programme ‘The understanding how the political be- 54th International Art Exhibition, La State of Things’ under the rubric of haviour of a state might migrate to Biennale di Venezia, to introduce Norway’s official representation in some abstraction in art. In Norway’s the conceptual framework of the the 54th International Art Exhibition, case, it was through the historical programme ‘The State of Things’. As La Biennale di Venezia. When dis- traditions of neutral political media- the Annual Report delves extensively cussing ideas about possible exhibi- tion reflected primarily in the exam- into the organisation’s comprehensive tion presentations for Venice in 2011, ple of the individual Fridtjof Nansen, programme for the year 2011, this it was inevitable to reflect on what a polar explorer who located a kind essay is intended as a contemplation could constitute a country’s repre- of fictional instrument in the form of of some issues that have constituted sentation in such a visual platform, a passport to provide the possibility concerns and propositions for the given the political, economic and of migration for those who felt or programme activities this year. philosophical climate of our time – were actually entrapped. one less ambitiously diagnosed and prescribed than lodged within a kind With this, we introduced ‘The State of holding pattern of the eventual and of Things’ as a programme including open-ended. With an acceleration the speakers Jacques Rancière, Leo into a kind of Fukushima syndrome, Bersani, Vandana Shiva, Jan Ege- the reality of events within this world land and Fawas Gergez in the first are set up against a metaphorical week of the Biennale, and those that backdrop of the indeterminable inevi- continued throughout the biennale table that propels us into an absolute period into late November with Eyal deniability or instead to a need to Weizman, Judith Butler, Franco Be- evaluate – to some degree – the very rardi, Saskia Sassen and T.J. Clark. state of things as practitioners within Each speaker proposed individual the field that is bracketed by the departures on how to think about Biennale. This prompts us to ask present dissonances, as a way to questions – ‘What is it that we even help us consider how the field of regard as aesthetically and critically art and aesthetics could remain an valuable at this point in time and emancipatory front. And we have why are we even doing what we do done so by cooperating with leading with a repeated homage to these set academic and research facilities in patterns and rituals?’ ‘The State of Venice, such as the Faculty of De- Things’ was an invitation to consider sign and Arts at the Università Iuav both within and outside the frame of di Venezia and the Istituto Veneto di art and aesthetics – a kind of Mal- Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. larmean attempt to ‘Roll the Dice that Will Never Abolish Chance’ – a way It is an understatement to say that of highlighting the ambiguities on a this programme developed against more abstract level for the purpose a landscape of dramatic events and of rethinking our approaches: not for change since its launch. The aspired the sake of the new, not for the sake reflection over the ‘state of things’ of the innovative, but for the sake of was eclipsed by an impulse gather- understanding the very rupture of ing momentum with each passing coherence that we find ourselves in. 6 7 week. As Jacques Rancière, who ernment in the Netherlands made Statement spoke as the programme’s opening possible by a far-right populist party speaker, elaborated: responsible for immigration and cultural policy that has resulted in of the Board A state of things presents itself an attack on contemporary arts and as an objective given, disre- pedagogical institutions. Within garding other possible states the mobilisation of a neo-regulated of things. And time is the best economic order with its dramatic medium for exclusion. There cuts in education and culture, all is is a simpler way in which time met with relatively little resistance, works as a principle of impos- but with a seismic undercurrent that sibility, the very simple separa- will no doubt make change visible in tion between the present and the coming months, weeks and even the past. ‘Times have changed’ days. It is possible that what we means that things have become read as incomprehensible will make impossible. They don’t belong itself available for interpretation for any more to what the new an expanded field of articulation, times make possible. So the operation and renewed autonomous empirical idea of time as a suc- activity. It may be that THIS IS NOT cession of moments has been ART. But perhaps THIS IS NOT ART substituted by an idea of time JUST YET. as a set of possibilities. ‘Times We speak not in conclusion, but have changed’ means: this is as the very beginning of a consid- no longer possible. And what a eration of something still to come. state of things readily declares We hope. impossible is, quite simply, the possibility to change the state Marta Kuzma of things: there are things you — Director, Office for can no longer do, ideas in which Contemporary Art Norway you can no longer believe, futures you can no longer im- agine. ‘You cannot’ means: you must not. Our present gives us a good illustration of this point. We faced in the last year the reality of two European countries ruled by technical governments; a right- wing party entering into power with massive support in Spain; a conservative government in the UK that continued to employ draconian austerity measures with limited resistance; the eradication of pro- testors of the occupy movements in the States, forcefully cleared away in the name of sanitation; a gov- 8 9 The year 2011 marked the 10th place independently from the other anniversary of OCA ’s foundation. Scandinavian countries. Norway’s In 2001 the Office for Contem- representation at 54th International porary Art Norway was set up by the Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, two co-founders, Ministry of Culture consisted of two programmes, run- and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with ning consecutively throughout the the aim ‘to promote and profes- year: ‘The State of Things’, a series of sionalise Norwegian participation lectures by internationally renowned in international cooperations within intellectuals in various cultural and the field of visual arts’. academic institutions in Venice, and The original OCA Board was ‘Beyond Death: Viral Discontents and appointed in September 2001 and Contemporary Notions about AIDS’, a composed of Tom Remlov, Chair- teaching programme by artist Bjarne man (film and theatre producer, pro- Melgaard at Università Iuav di Vene- fessor at the National Film School of zia. The overall programme aimed to Norway); Aicha Bouhlou (gallerist, build institutional relationships and Bergen); Per Bjarne Boym (Director, expand the reach of the project to The National Museum of Contem- wider audiences than those histori- porary Art); Jeannette Christensen cally attending the Biennale. (artist, Oslo); Ann Ollestad (Director General of Culture Ministry of For- Reflecting upon the possibility that eign Affairs). the image of a nation may in fact be The public opening of the foun- defined by its internationalism, ‘The dation happened one year later, in State of Things’ intended to project September 2002, followed by the the image of Norway as a forward- beginning of OCA’s activities. OCA looking country in cultural and was given its final name, staff were political terms. The public lectures, appointed, and the main aims of the given by internationally respected newly established foundation as a intellectuals, reflected upon themes promoter of international exchange such as diversity, Europe, the (rather than an agent in national environment, peace-making, hu- promotion) were established. man rights, capital, sustainability, migration, asylum, aesthetics and Since its foundation OCA has been war. Each of the papers tackled the responsible for the Norwegian repre- ‘state of things’ of the day, drawing sentation within the Venice Biennale. from the speakers’ fields of activ- The cooperation between Finland, ity and research, and from what Norway and Sweden in Venice was they considered the intellectual initiated in 1962 after the comple- and political priorities of today. tion of the Nordic Pavilion designed Speakers included gender theorist by the Norwegian architect Sverre Judith Butler, environmental activist Fehn within the Giardini of the Venice and author Vandana Shiva, media Biennale. The responsibility for repre- theorist and activist Franco Berardi, sentation in each Biennale alternated art historian T.J. Clark, philosopher between the collaborating countries Jacques Rancière and architectural until 2009. The year 2011 is the first theorist Eyal Weizman. occasion in which Norway’s partici- pation at the Venice Biennale took 10 11 ‘Beyond Death: Viral Discontents national Council generously hosted OCA’s continued its regular pro- nial, UK. Solo exhibitions included and Contemporary Notions about and supported a reception at their gramme throughout 2011 in Nedre Øystein Aasan at FORDE, Geneva, AIDS’ consisted of engaging artist residence in Venice to celebrate the gate 7; the OCA Semesterplan and Switzerland; Marianne Hurum at Bjarne Melgaard as Guest Profes- launch of Norway’s representation its interrelation with the Verksted Lothringer13, Munich, Germany; sor for the Graduate Programme of in the 54th Venice Biennale. The re- publications had a series of high- Marte Eknæs at Between Bridges, Visual Arts at the Faculty of Design ception brought together Norwegian lights during this year, particularly London, UK; Gardar Eide Einarsson and Arts, Università Iuav di Venezia.