This is the type of piece me myself would like to write about the National Museum in Norway and it's founding director Sune Nordgren. The newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (Financial Times of Norway) produced a major piece of journalism when the showed in a long feature how a small group of men did an intensive effort to discover and expose how Norgren in his role a director squeezing the National Gallery, The Contemporary Art, The Architecture and the National Museum of decorative art and design under one administration, banned part of his staff - did a bad job at Baltic etc. The feature expose who these men are, how they fed a few major norwegian art critics with material. This material was again used by the critics without exposing it's source.
The feature shows that in every witch hunt, this one as well used slight, doubtful and useless evidence. The mafia standing behind this tried to feed journalists and editors with the same material, but it never stood ground when they dug deeper into it.
This case is a very complex case, and even though the article was explosive when it was published, it show many a great gap in the structure and history.
BAck to MoMa, Tomkins have spent almost half a century at MoMA and has a memoryt about it before most of today's artists and curator even could spell 'art'. He talks about the new museum, takes into consideration some rumours and lies that have been said about MoMA, about the curatorial staff, its director etc. and then talks to all involved. This is what I would like to do about the National Museum in Norway: talk to those involved. No one ever talked to the curators at the museum, they never ever entered the debate. neither did other museums directors. IT is all so quiet.
So why is this something?
Norgren resigned - something I do not think would have happened it a bigger country.
[ 440 comments ] ( 5224 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link |
( 3 / 1986 )Italy got a new gallery; Citric Gallery in Brescia (where is that?)`
Not that I understand Italian, but here is what the invitation card state:
ha il piacere di invitarvi
all'inugurazione della galleria
sabato 23 settembre 2006
ore 18.00
when your happy, clap your hands.
got a really nice package from Jan Christensen the other day with a lot of stuff in it (a bit like christmas), dvds, cracs, art stuff and a copy of a magazine page with a red circle marking som text:
It sucks to abandon your kids and it makes them feel really bd about themselves for their whole lives and they tend to have relationship problems, but as far as aesthetic goes, it's kind of a good look. It's way more FTW than punk or metal, because it's like "You guys can give all the fingers you want. I AM fucking the world"
I guess me and him got something in common there.
further, about Mr. Christensen, the inevitable is happening. Me and him would meet again, I knew it. Around 2000 we where mailing back and forth making up stories and ideas about how to open a art gallery in Oslo.; when Jan decided to do his own art instead (got him far I guess, much further than me and my do-not-know-what-I-am-doing-with-my-life; attitude), I bailed as well. It was never that serious, but we had ideas. it would have blasted the art scene in Oslo (and then we would have gone bankrupt after 11 September 2001 for sure). Now, I am doing my own
art space here in Leipzig and our first larger exhibition will be "I Will Never Make IT!" based on Jan's first big wall piece, conceptualized in 2000 and realized first in 2003, winning an award - like Jan does the best.
Anyway. Jan will start a gallery it looks like. Funny name, reminds me of something ; like my own name.
Leif Magne Tangens
[ 372 comments ] ( 14350 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link |
( 2.9 / 1874 )two friends of mine has a show in an art space nearby oslo kalled Aksershus Kunstnersenter. They both work with both installation and wall painting. Images from the show is to be seen on Lars Morell's home page.
[ 597 comments ] ( 1094 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link |
( 3 / 1814 )one thing is of course that artforum.com does not have the highest standards when it comes to conflict of interest, another thing as well it is that I find a perverse interest in reading artforum.com's diary (called Scene & Herd) - and third thing is that I do have friends writing for them. A fourth thing is that I do not understand why Brian Sholis has a Blog that he never finds the time to update.
ps. do read April Elizabeth Lamm's post upon going to Norway. This is the third time in a year or so that a columnist at artforum.com goes up north. The two others being Brian Sholis at the opening of Elmgreen & Dragset's show in Bergen this year and Clair Bishop going way up north to my home part of norway. Check out the talkback. Someone did not like the Bishop’s formulations.
[ 835 comments ] ( 3831 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link |
( 3 / 1881 )I guess I am not single-minded. I guess that is good. I guess that is less good for my google hit rate. Not that I care. This site is not meant to become a popular blog, or at least I am doing no effort to make it more attractive or easier to reach. I guess that means it is a non-commercial blog? I am however hoping that those (any) of you that reads it (un/frequently) have a certain interest in it. I am not Tyler Green, I am not a journalist and I am not doing much updating on the arts life in Leipzig -- altough I live here. I should tell more about Leipzig and it's art life. Starting on Wednesday. I promise.
My hit rate at google (is it at all possible to find this blog without knowing the link og going through )vitakuben ? I do not think so. thats good. The idea was to have a space online (means someone could read it) that would force me to write some lines now and then. The blog also fits into the concept of Vitakuben the way it is today: underdeveloped and strange. We have done no projects since the oVERstation project (see http://ah.vitakuben.org -- click on oVERstation), and the only one that is doing something with his pages is Aksel (AH). The others (kjersti Bergesen and Nicolai Høgenhaug) are doing next to nothing online (As it happens, Aksel is the onlyone that do now how to program...)
But back to my writing. I do not write that good, not good at all if you ask me. I think the only reason why I am wanted at all by Norwegian (and some foreign mags) is that I do know a few people and I always hear the news early on (when it comes to Norway that is, when it comes to international new within the art world I am probably one of the first Norwegians to read about it, either by friends and contacts or by reading magazines, newsletters and other related written material ). Blogs, I do read a great deal of blogs. not all of them listed in my blogsroll, by there are a few that I read.
But one thing is to want to do something, another thing is to be able to live from it. I cannot live from writing and I know very few people that is independent and being able to pay their bills from writing. I know they do excist, but the marked is just not large enough. That combined with the fact that magazines
a) want many independent writers and
b) do not want to pay that well -- or cannot pay very much -- makes it difficoult to live from writing about contemporary art in a non journalist fashion.
The last two weeks I have been selling advertisement for the online magazine
kunstkritikk, building up a network within Norway, doing some chance, spam-like mails to more international magazines and institutions landing a deal with a few institution and a few international (as in: not Norwegian). That was fun. Organizing was fun. much more fun than writing.
And I mean, I did apply for a job in northern Norway a wile back. The application deadline in on Monday (second round) and I am expecting to be called up, mailed or something like this asking me to come to a job interview -- again. So you see, I hope to be able to work on vermitlung and developing new concepts rather that writing.
-- or so I hope --
got to go, have to write that piece on that the Norwegian gallery wang will not be closed down, but they will probably step down their engagement considerably.
[ 493 comments ] ( 3716 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink | related link |
( 3 / 1777 )Back Next
Calendar
