Favoured Nations Participating artists: Akassen, Mats Adelman, Roger Andersson, Asmundur Asmundsson, Fia Backström, Maja Bajevic, Petra Bauer & Annette Krauss, Nina Beier & Marie Lund, Maja Borg, Liv Bugge, Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, Jacob Dahlgren, Ida Ekblad, Marte Eknæs, Andreas Eriksson, Jan Freuchen, Carl-Michael von Hausswolff, Hannaleena Heiska, Saskia Holmkvist, Karl Holmqvist, Lars Laumann, Klara Liden, Darri Lorenzen, Josefine Lyche, Eline McGeorge, Are Mokkelbost, Jani Ruscica, Marthe Thorshaug, Helgi Þórsson, Salla Tykkä, Gaeoudjiparl Punkt Ø proudly presents Favoured Nations, the fifth edition of Momentum, focusing on the work of artists with a background from, or a connection to, the Nordic region. The exhibition features 31 artists and groups spread across two outstanding and strikingly different venues – Momentum Kunsthall and Galleri F15, in addition to projects in the surrounding areas. Favoured Nations is a legal term borrowed from international trade agreements, which is used in contracts to request equal treatment for all parties. In the context of this biennial the term acts as a springboard for highlighting issues around equality, access and the ways in which those involved in artistic production are treated. Highlighting infrastructural issues such as artists’ salaries and hierarchies involved in curatorial decisions, the curators have used the title as a working method rather than a theme. Is there such a thing as ’fair treatment’ in a biennial context and if so, what might this mean? In the context of a Nordic Biennial the term Favoured Nations also points to ideas often associated with Nordic countries – the belief that artists from this region of economic prosperity enjoy privileged treatment, a life filled with opportunities, grants and, we are often told, salaries to be an artist. The curators have made a decision to work with artists they have come across during their research trips in the five Nordic countries – Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland as well as Nordic ’satellites’ (Berlin, London, New York) – cities which are home to many artists from the region. Momentum has always operated from and within a Nordic context, though the ways in which Nordic as a term or concept has been approached has differed (since the first edition in 1998). At a time when biennials and the global art world are taken for granted, the curators have chosen to go back to the particular by interpreting Nordic in a geographical rather than conceptual sense. This is not a salute to simple nationalism, or a case of being sentimental, but the belief that sometimes the strength is in the detail. About Momentum Previous Momentum’s have been curated by Lars Bang Larsen, Daniel Birnbaum and Atle Gerhardsen (Pakkhus, 1998), Jonas Ekeberg, Paula Toppila, Jacob Fabricius and Ina Blom (Park, 2000), Caroline Corbetta and Per Gunnar Tverbakk (Momentum 2004) and Anette Kierulf and Marc Sladen (Try Again, Fail Again, Fail Better, 2006). Curators 2009 Lina Džuverovic is the Founding Director of ELECTRA, a London-based contemporary art agency established in 2003. She is currently curating the exhibition ’27 Senses’ about the life of Kurt Schwitters in Norway, opening in April 09 at Kunstmuseet KUBE, Alesund, Norway. Selected projects include co-curating Art Now Live performance programme at Tate Britain (2007), Transcommunication Lab (as part of Radio Gallery Series 2006), Her Noise (South London Gallery, 2005), Perfect Partner by Kim Gordon, Tony Oursler and Phil Morrison (Barbican Centre, London) and devising and teaching on the lecture series Sound And The Twentieth Century Avant Garde (Tate Modern, 2004/05), Stina Högkvist is a curator of Contemporary Art at the National Museum of Art Architecture and Design in Oslo, Norway. In 2009 she curated "Hypocrisy: the site specificity of morality" together with Koyo Kouoh. For the summer of 2009 she is planning an exhibition with assume vivid astro focus. She is also working on a research project at the museum titled Dark secrets: representations of Africa in the museum collection. |
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