Art and institutions
“I Demand a Museum to Feel its Own Floors Tremble When Other Museums are Destroyed in War.”
Saturday 22.02.25
Saturday 22.02.25
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.
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
Stefanie Carp
Matej Drlička
Andrea Geyer
Sarah Lookofsky
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.
Read more about the exhibition here.
Foto: Jannik Abel
