Major Launch of the Rethinking Nordic Colonialism
Documentation DVD & WEBSITE!
Saturday, November 25, 2006 in
Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo & Stockholm
Nuuk, Reykjavik, Rovaniemi & Tórshavn
Kuratorisk Aktion and NIFCA, Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art are very pleased to invite the public to the launch of the Rethinking Nordic Colonialism documentation DVD and WEBSITE.
Both document the rich body of aesthetic and theoretical reflections generated during the exhibition project Rethinking Nordic Colonialism: A Postcolonial Exhibition Project in Five Acts, which took place in Iceland, Greenland, The Faroe Islands, and Finnish Sápmi earlier this year. In addition, they contain a series of essays and interviews produced specifically for these publications.
Rethinking Nordic Colonialism has attempted to write a first collective history of Nordic colonialism. The project combined exhibitions with workshops, conferences, hearings, and happenings and featured fifty-six artists, theorists, politicians, and grassroots activists from all over the world. Together, they examined why the history of Nordic colonialism has been widely forgotten and how it continues to reproduce itself as waves of intolerance, xenophobia, and nationalism.
The DVD and website contain general information about the project and allow viewers to navigate through the projects five acts and access the following:
Participant Bios & Project Descriptions
Exhibition Video Tours
Film Program Video Tours
Public Events Audio & Video Summaries
Behind the Scenes Photos
Printable Essays & Papers
Reports from the Act Locations
Press Material & Press Coverage
The DVD and website are released on Saturday, November 25, 2006, during a series of simultaneous launch events co-hosted by cultural institutions, organizations, and magazines in the Nordic capitals. Please join us in one of the venues below for publication presentation, discussions, food, drinks, and music:
Copenhagen, 5 8 pm @ Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art
Overgaden neden Vandet 17, DK-1414 Copenhagen K
Helsinki, 5 10 pm @ NIFCA, Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art
Suomenlinna B28, FIN-00190 Helsinki
Oslo, 5 8 pm @ Torpedo Kunstbokhandelen
Hausmannsgate 42, N-0182 Oslo
Stockholm, 5 8 pm @ Konsthall C
Cigarrvägen 14, S-123 57 Hökarängen
Nuuk, 1 3 pm @ Greenlands Cultural Center Katuaqs CafeTuaq
Imaneq 21, GRL-3900 Nuuk
Reykjavik, 4 6 pm @ The Reykjavik Academys Dagsbrúnar Library_
JL-house, 4th floor, Hringbraut 121, IS-107 Reykjavik
Rovaniemi, 4 6 pm @ Arktikum Library
Pohjoisranta 4, FIN-96200 Rovaniemi
Tórshavn, 2 4 pm @ The Faroe Islands Art Museum
Gundadalsvegur 9, 110 Tórshavn
A preview of the website is available on www.rethinking-nordic-colonialism.org after November 14. Free DVDs are available at the launches or can be purchased 10 by contacting Kuratorisk Aktion at info@kuratorisk.org.
Rethinking Nordic Colonialism has been realized with generous financial support from: Nordic Council of Ministers, The Living Art Museum, Stooir hf., The Reykjavik Academy, Greenland National Museum and Archives, Teachers Training School of Greenland, The Faroe Islands Art Museum, The Nordic House in the Faroe Islands, Finnish Railways, The Arctic Centre, The European Cultural Foundation, The Danish Arts Council’s Committee for International Visual Art, Nordiska Museikommittén, Svenska kulturfonden, IASPIS International Artists’ Studio Program in Sweden, Mentanargrunnur Landsins, Arts Council of Lapland, FRAME: Finnish Fund for Art Exchange, Færøernes Landsstyri, NACS: Nordic Association for Canadian Studies, Det Kongelige Grønlandsfond, Kulturfonden Danmark-Grønland, Embassy of Canada in Finland, OCA (Office for Contemporary Art Norway), Atlantic Airways Ltd., Icelandair, Hotel Hans Egede, Puukeskus Oy Rovaniemi, Air Logistics Aps, Skipafelagio, Ljóo-Tøkni, Royal Arctic Line A/S, Hotel Føroyar, The Nordic House on Iceland, Hótel Leifur Eiríksson, Dronning Ingrids Hospital Central Laboratoriet, Nuuk Værft A/S, U.S. Overskudslager, Dansk Veteranbiludlejning, Den Danske Trådvarefabrik, Beredskabsstyrelsen, Rovaniemi Art Museum, and KNR (Greenland National Broadcasting Company).
Kuratorisk Aktion is a platform for curators engaged in a critical practice along the lines of race, class, gender, and sexuality. The platform was founded by Danish-born curators, Frederikke Hansen and Tone Olaf Nielsen, in spring 2005. Merging feminist, queer, and activist informed approaches, Kuratorisk Aktion pledge themselves to raise consciousness on the politics of representation and translate this consciousness into practice. We attempt to achieve this through a 65/35 percent representation of minoritarian and majoritarian subjectivities respectively in all our productions, at the same time as we open this procedure up to critique as part of the curatorial methodology. In this way, Kuratorisk Aktion hope to demonstrate a politically correct practice one, however, that steers clear of tokenism and allows alternative thinking to be the dominant trait, not only in terms of the identity politics of the participants but more importantly in terms of their practice. Since August 2005, Kuratorisk Aktion have been employed by NIFCA, Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art in Helsinki. Their employment will end in December 2006, upon which the collective hopes to establish a research institute for long-term aesthetic, theoretical, and activist interrogations into global socio-political issues. Kuratorisk Aktion is presently also working on realizing the project Whats Left of the Left? Rethinking Left-Wing Politics in the Age of Globalization. Websites include: www.kuratorisk.org, www.rethinking-nordic-colonialism.org.
For additional information, please contact Press Coordinator Aura Seikkula, tel: 358 9 686 43 106, mobile: 358 50 501 5121, aura.seikkula@nifca.org, www.rethinking-nordic-colonialism.org, www.nifca.org
