MOMENTUM10: The Emotional Exhibition

Since its inception in 1998, MOMENTUM has strived to present compelling works of art and outstanding artistic ventures in a Nordic context. The biennial has since become established as one of the most exciting platforms for contemporary art in the Nordic region and has taken important curatorial approaches that define the present moment in Nordic countries. Now after 20 years one of the oldest Nordic biennial celebrates its 10th edition with a program presenting 29 international artists. While rediscovering iconic works shown in previous editions, MOMENTUM10 also presents relevant new positions. Having worked with the likes of Daniel Birnbaum and Olafur Eliasson, the biennial also gives space for continuous discussion on the notion of the “Nordic”.

Contributors              
André Alves (PT), Anne de Vries (NL), Annika Larsson (SE), Christodoulos Panayiotou (CY), Eija-Liisa Ahtila (FI), Eirik Senje (NO), Erik Öberg (SE), Fanny Ollas (SE), Francesc Ruiz (ES), Gabriel Lester (NL), Hannaleena Heiska (FI), Ilkka Halso (FI), Ina Hagen (NO), Johanna Billing (SE), Julieta Aranda (MX), Keren Cytter (IL), Knut Åsdam (NO), Olafur Eliasson (DK), Pauline Curnier Jardin (FR), Pauline Fondevila (FR), Pepo Salazar (ES), Ragnar Kjartansson (IS), Regina de Miguel (ES), Rosalind Nashashibi (UK), Salla Tykkä (FI), Saskia Holmkvist (SE), Sissel Tolaas (NO), Stine Marie Jacobsen (DK), Åsa Cederqvist (SE)

Curator
Marti Manen

Assistant curator
Anne Klontz

MOMENTUM10. The Emotional Exhibition     
One biennial to go back to emotion, one MOMENTUM to understand the need to stop and feel, to redefine the possibility of feeling. We must go beyond language, beyond comprehension to understand that it will be with emotions—and the physicality connected to emotions—that we will embrace complexity. It is not easy to feel; it is not easy to maintain connection to the world at an emotional level. It is not easy to accept that humanity is defined by love, fear, desire, panic, happiness and sadness altogether. In a technological world based on logical constructions, to re-encounter emotions offers us an escape from the linguistic approach, formalizing an attempt to deal with sincerity, accepting who we are and all the contradictions that define us.

Ten editions of MOMENTUM represent a notable gathering of complexity, expectations, desires and contradictions: things to remember, moments to rediscover, and reasons to celebrate. Works by 29 international artists, of which some were already on show in earlier editions, also give room to the desire to look back at some previous situations of MOMENTUM, to revisit them from an emotional point of view, and to think about the position of MOMENTUM during all these years. This exhibition happens now, but looks back at the nine previous editions, remembering or reconfiguring moments that can define the present time. The concepts and ideas behind The Emotional Exhibition offer a way to deal with formats, definitions, identities and emotions with a need to reformulate how to act and what to do, how to share and how to build something with a sort of new non-vocabulary – one that we share and that we can find within the complexity of emotions.

Reader & Viewer
MOMENTUM10 is accompanied by two publications (the Reader and the Viewer). The Reader is focused on the history of MOMENTUM and includes interviews with former curators. The Viewer will be about the artists presented at MOMENTUM10. It will be launched after the opening. Publisher: Art&Theory, Stockholm.

Reader launch: April 11, 2019 at IASPIS, Stockholm/in partnership with GIBCA    
Press conference: June 7, 2019 at 1pm, MOMENTUM kunsthall
Public opening: June 8, 2019 at 2pm, MOMENTUM kunsthall
Official website: www.momentum.no

International press contact
ARTPRESS – Ute Weingarten
Victoria Trunova
trunova.artpress@uteweingarten.de
+49 (0) 176 386 73 444