Art and institutions

“I Demand a Museum to Feel its Own Floors Tremble When Other Museums are Destroyed in War.”

How free are institutions and the people who work in them today? Can art institutions host and protect critical expressions? Does the arm’s-length principle–keeping political interference from the arts–exist? What is the influence of algorithmic social media on built art infrastructures? How widespread is self-censorship? Can cultural spaces be platforms for diverging positions to meet?

Across the world, cultural institutions are under increasing pressure. Censorship, self-censorship, drastic funding cuts, and political and sponsorship interference are on the rise. Former and present institutional directors–with personal experiences of political pressure, cancelation and censorship from different geographic contexts–will discuss the limitations and capacities of art institutions in the present, alongside others with a stake in the museum as a democratic space.

Saturday 22.02.25

hr. 14:30

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Where

Kunstnernes Hus

Price

Ordinary: NOK 130 / Student: NOK 70 / Members: free

Info

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About the event

The conversation takes place around the 8-metre long table that is periodically assembled for a series entitled Back to the Table in Jannik Abel’s current exhibition Back to the Land at Kunstnernes Hus.

The quote in the title is borrowed from the work Manifest by Andrea Geyer, currently displayed on the facade of Kunstnernes Hus. In advance of the conversation, Andrea Geyer will lead a workshop where visitors will formulate their own wishes and demands towards museums.

The event is part of a program that is organized in partnership with Fritt Ord for which exhibitions of Kunstnernes Hus create the framework for conversations about the intersections of art, society and freedom today.

Participants

Adam Budak

Adam Budak is an independent curator for contemporary art and a writer, currently based in Hannover, Germany. He was artistic director of Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover where he developed an exhibition program which reflected the notions of tenderness, anabasis and amor mundi, as well as exploring the avant-garde legacy of El Lissitzky and the relevance of Hannah Arendt’s political thought. Previously, Budak served as artistic director and chief curator of the National Gallery Prague. Independently, he curated many international biennials, amongst them, Manifesta 7, Prague Biennial, Gherdeina Biennial, Estonian Pavilion of the 55th Venice Art Biennale, and the Latvian Pavilion of the 60th Venice Art Biennale.

Stefanie Carp

Stefanie Carp grew up in Hamburg, and studied German Philology, Philosophy and Theatre History in West Berlin. After completing her PhD, she started to work as a dramaturg in different theatres in Düsseldorf, Basel, Hamburg, Berlin and Zürich. In 2000, she took over the artistic direction of the Zurich Schauspielhaus with two collaborators. After Zurich and two years as Chief Dramaturg at the Volksbühne in Berlin, Stefanie Carp accepted an offer from the Vienna Festival as artistic director of the international theatre program. From 2018 to 2020 she was the artistic director of the Festival Ruhrtriennale. Since 2020 she has worked as an advisor for the international program of the Athens & Epidaurus Festival.

Matej Drlička

Matej Drlička is a dramaturg, producer and convenor of cultural and social events. He founded the Viva Musica festival! And the event agency Viva Events! From 2021 to 2024, he was General Manager of the Slovak National Theatre, the largest cultural institution in the Slovak Republic. Drlička commenced his career as a professional clarinet player, performing widely. He is recipient of the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, awarded by the French Minister of Culture in 2024.

Andrea Geyer

Andrea Geyer is an artist whose work focuses on the complex politics of time and memory, re-orienting the past towards the urgency of the present. Geyer’s practice ranges across text, photography, painting, sculpture, video and performance and has been exhibited at, among other venues, The Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; TATE Modern and Serpentine Gallery in London; Jumex Foundation in Mexico; Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin; and at the Sao Paulo Bienal and documenta12 in Kassel. Geyer teaches at the Parsons School of Design - The New School and lives and works in New York.

Sarah Lookofsky

Sarah Lookofsky is a curator, writer and art historian. She is currently Director of Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo. She came from the position as dean of the Academy of Fine Arts at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO). Before moving to Norway in 2020, she was Associate Director of the Museum of Modern Art’s International Programme. She was general advisor for the 9th Berlin Biennial organised by the DIS collective, and from 2010 to 2014, she was director of Curatorial Studies at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Programme.

Moderator: Ingerid Salvesen

About Back to the Table

Back to the Table is a social-relational dialogue program that consists of six gatherings around the table in the skylight hall at Kunstnernes Hus. Artists from several different art fields meet around an eight metre long table. The table has been made by Jannik Abel with recycled materials from many different art projects and art institutions.

The conversations take place in Abel's exhibition Back to the Land, and there in the middle of the art we will talk together. In this time our collective forces must be gathered.