Accessibility, Participation and Art as an Independent Force

A panel discussion about populism, art and cultural policy.

Friday 8 April at 4 – 7pm
Panelists: Gerald Raunig, Rolf Hugoson, and Vanessa Joan Müller
Moderator: Lene Crone Jensen (Rooseum)

"Accessibility, Participation and Art as an Independent Force" aims to discuss the relation between populism, art and current cultural policies. The discussion is more specifically intended to revolve around social democratic contexts, such as the Nordic, and to relate developments in these contexts to a more general international situation.

After the Second World War a socially motivated cultural policy has been dominating in the Nordic region and social democracy still forms a base for cultural policy, although in changing forms over the decades. Following the social democratic politics the Swedish state-supported cultural sector (as an example) is governed by ideas of serving the interest of the people and the “gemeinschaft”, to build up a welfare society based on democratic ideals, solidarity and the equal status of people. Catch phrases in the 1960s were democratisation of culture, which in the 1970s changed to democratic culture or cultural democracy. As key concepts we find, among others, accessibility and participation. Since the 1990s an increasing management culture has developed within the arts, with an emphasis on art as commerce and ascribing art and culture the role as driving force within business and economy. An efficiency is now required in most Nordic countries in relation to how tax money is being used, politicians are propagating for a clear result.

The panel will focus on present cultural policies. General questions will be addressed such as: What is the role of art and art institutions in today’s political climate? What kind of links could be made between populism and current social democracy? How are populist rhetorics articulated on a political level and what structuring effects do they have or might they have on contemporary art? How is the relation between independent experiment and mass appeal perceived today?

The panel discussion is arranged in connection with NIFCA’s Populism exhibition and Rooseum’s current exhibition Whatever happened to social democracy?. Common thematics for both exhibitions have served as the catalyst for organising a joint panel discussion around the issue of populism and the challenges of social democratic politics.

The panel discussion will be held in English.

Gerald Raunig
Philosopher, art theoretician, lives in Vienna. Lecturer at the University of Klagenfurt and the University of Luneburg. Codirector of eipcp (European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies), Vienna. Coordinator of the transnational research project republicart, member of EFAH (European Forum for the Arts and Heritage), Bruxelles, and editor of the periodical Kulturrisse. Author of several books and essays on art theory, political aesthetics, cultural politics and politics of difference.

Rolf Hugoson
Has a lectureship in Political Science at the Dalarna University. In 2000 he presented his thesis What is cultural politics? A question of Rhetorics. Critic for Västerbottenkuriren. Author of several essays on cultural politics, rethorics and political history. Published the book War and Rhetorics. An Introduction in 2004.

Vanessa Joan Müller
Curator and art critic. She has worked for the Frankfurter Kunstverein as curator since 2000. Curated Exhibitions (amongst others): Neue Welt (2001), New Heimat (2001) non-places (2002), nation (2004) Adorno. The Possibility of the Impossible (2003), Peter Friedl: Four or Five Roses (2004), Therefore Beautiful (2005). Several essays on contemorary art and art theory. She is member of the board of institutional advisors of the exhibition project Populism and part of the editorial committee of The Populism Reader, a theoretical publication accompanying the exhibition.

Organisers
Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art
Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art, NIFCA
For more information on "Populism":
www.populism2005.com

Place
Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art
Gasverksgatan 22
SE-203 12 Malmö
T: +46 40 12 17 16
F: +46 40 30 45 61

Registration
Last day for registration is Monday, 4 April.
Please contact Rooseum,

In Copenhagen, please also take part in the Populism Talk Series:

7 April: Dismantling Populism through Populism
Barbara Steiner (curator; director at Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig)
Jens Haaning (artist)

20 April: Art and Activism
Tone Olaf Nielsen (independent curator)
Jakob Jakobsen (artist)

4 May: The Culture Industry
Simon Sheikh (curator, critic and course leader of the Critical Studies program at Malmö Art Academy)
Anders Michelsen (visual culture lecturer at Copenhagen University)

26 May: "Until the Principles of Form are Applied to Democracy ..."
Avantgarde Art and Populist Imagination.
Ina Blom (Associate Professor, Dept. of Art History, University of Oslo)
Second speaker to be confirmed (contributor to the Populism Reader)

All talks start at 7 PM at the Hirshsprung auditorium
The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts,
Peder Skramsgade 2b, 3rd floor, Copenhagen K.

Talks organized by
Tamar Guimaraes, Lotte Juul Petersen, NIFCA and Grunduddanelsen,
with support from Media Art Dept(Cph)
E-mail: [email protected]. and [email protected]
For more information:
www.mediaart.dk/populism_cph/