[OCA, NYC]
25 Broadway
New York, 10004
NY, USA
About [OCA, NYC]:
[OCA, NYC] is an experimental platform launched by The Office for Contemporary Art Norway in Oslo in an aim to initiate projects, host seminars, talks, and screenings with an effort to draw from the resources and network already available in New York City.
Physically lodged within the accompanying office of the architecture firm of Snøhetta in the historical Cunard Cruise Lines building (and the former Police Museum), [OCA, NYC] legitimately squats space to act as an alternative and innovative international venue for contemporary art, culture and discourse.
The office/workshop is located on the 2nd Floor of 25 Broadway, adjacent to Battery Park. Due to entrance logistics, attendance to all events requires a prior R.S.V.P. to Ida Ghosh at ida@oca.no. It would be helpful to receive your final R.S.V.P. by the 5th of March.
Entrance is free and Fjellbekk and Hylleblomst will be served at all events.
March:
Tuesday, 6 March at 18:00
Ina Blom Gardar Eide Einarsson: On Black and White
Critic, curator and academic Ina Blom joins New York based artist Gardar Eide Einarsson to talk about ways of addressing contemporary art beyond the deadlock of “political” content versus “formalist” visual style. The talk takes its starting point in Ina Blom’s research on the possibility of a new approach to the style question in relation to the social and site-specific practices of contemporary art, as well as Einarsson’s mostly monochrome black and stylized works that handle ideas and practices connected with, among other things, political extremism. Importantly, “style” here is not approached as an attribute of artworks or individual artists or “schools”. Style is, rather, discussed as a social site, in the sense that the difficult “questions of style” that are at work in contemporary culture opens onto discussions concerning the contemporary production of sociality. The talk will also focus on the work of other artists who could be said to approach style as a social site.
Wednesday, 7 March at 18:00
Lene Berg: “Gentlemen and Arseholes”: Encounter and the Conspiracy of the Congress for Cultural Freedom (1950-1967)
Norwegian filmmaker and artist Lene Berg premieres the video “The Man in the Background” and launches her publication, “Gentlemen and Arseholes”, two parts of one project about art and propaganda during the Cold War. Berg’s project focuses on the cultural journal Encounter that had been founded and distributed in 1953 as one of the undertakings of the Congress of Cultural Freedom (19571967). Berg’s approach calls into question what is defined as a “liberal conspiracy” and what is otherwise deemed a successful state sponsored cultural effort carried out by a power intelligence agency. The project is to follow at Midway in Minneapolis in mid March.
Thursday, 8 March at 18:00
Hanne Mugaas Cory Arcangel: Art Since 1960 (According to the Internet)
Mugaas and Arcangel are concerned with the Internet and its possibilities for archiving and distributing information. Art history uploaded to the Internet is certainly an alternative one, and often the information available is randomly contextualized and interpreted without any hierarchy or control. Based on user generated content, the Internet has become a unique channel of distribution where the responsibility of interpretation lies in the hands of the receiver and his/her ability to sort out and analyze the given information. For this event, Mugaas and Arcangel will sort and collect images, video, and audio from the Internet in order to discern where art and art history on the web is situated right now. The findings will culminate in a video screening presented with a live directors commentary. Through this event, the intention is to discuss for better or worse how art is changed by this situation, and in turn how the Internet is changing our perception of art.
[OCA, NYC] is open according to announced schedule. For further information, please check www.oca.no or contact: siri@oca.no.
