Nordic Art in the 2010s
Nine Scandinavian writers, critics, and curators share their reflections on Nordic contemporary art from the decade we just left behind.
The End of Art Education as We Know It
The new art academies that emerged in the Nordic region during the 2010s offer multi-functional spaces. They also prescribe a new role for the artist: project manager.
Into the Friction
An agitational aesthetic demanding the redistribution of power and responsibility characterised the art field of the 2010s.
Going Public
In the 2010s, collective action replaced individual visions as the agent of change in art institutions.
Follow the Money
In the 2010s, money became an interpersonal issue, the patriarchy took a well-deserved beating, and a good pitch became more important than a good practice.
Psychonautic Aesthetics
The most important artists of the 2010’s were the ones who helped us to navigate through private and social neuroses, perversions, and psychoses.
Extemporary Art
In the 2010s, artists abandoned the present in favour of the past, the future, and other, larger temporalities. Art is no longer contemporary, but extemporary.
A Decade, Viewed from the Outside
Internationalisation undermined the existence of a Nordic art scene, while a new image of the region tainted by colonial history gained attention in the globalised art world of the 2010s.
When Contemporary Art Reaches the Age of Majority
In the 2010s, Norwegian cultural politics began the deliberate disassembly of a functioning system under the pretence of having something to replace it with.
The Long 2010s
During the 2010s it has become apparent that the fascination of the archive can not be separated from the ideology of the digital data base.