Terms of Belonging

Terms of Belonging
Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, Kajsa Dahlberg, Luca Frei, Olivia Plender, Gåafstand (Pia Rönicke & Nis Rømer), Superflex, Althea Thauberger, Johan Tirén​
3 September–30 October 2011

Opening:
2 September, 5–8pm

Curated by Aileen Burns and Johan Lundh

Institute of Contemporary Art
Overgaden Neden Vandet 17
DK-1414 Copenhagen K
Denmark
info [​at​] overgaden.org
www.overgaden.org

This past spring, wave after wave of social and political change swept across Northern Africa and parts of the Middle East. After decades of dictatorial and unjust rule the people of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and others took to the streets to overthrow their leaders. In Greece, Spain and the UK, young people and old alike have taken to their city centers to protest against forced austerity. Prior to the ‘Arab Spring’, Sudan was the only Arab country to have successfully conquered its authoritarian regime. In the decade leading up to these popular revolutions, more quiet, structural, top-down transformations have taken place in other parts of the world. A combination of neo-liberal ideology and nationalism has been spreading like wildfire, turning once-progressive nation states with strong welfare and justice systems, like Denmark and The Netherlands, into places where aggressive privatization goes hand in hand with xenophobia and where prejudice has taken over the political discourse.

Terms of Belonging was initiated in order to devote time, energy, and creative thought toward the question: How can we realize ways of sharing our world beyond the confines of nationalism? The project features Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, Kajsa Dahlberg, Luca Frei, Olivia Plender, Gåafstand (Pia Rönicke & Nis Rømer), Superflex, Althea Thauberger and Johan Tirén who will present new and recent works which will weave and alter social fabrics to enter into new and unexpected relationships with their collaborators and audiences. By fostering temporary communities, employing strategic separatism, or reframing social and legal contracts, the artists will generate other modes of being-in-common.

The production residency is a collaboration between Overgaden, CPH AIR, and the Factory for Art and Design in Copenhagen and takes place during August. It gives the artists an opportunity to form a community amongst themselves and to establish ties with Copenhageners who are participants in the project. The exhibition takes place at Overgaden’s from early September to the end of October, and will be the key point of contact between artists and audiences, serve as a meeting point for participants, and become an active space for the objects and images produced by the artists.

In conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, the curators have organized a public forum, which is a collaboration between Overgaden and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Here, exhibiting artists and curators will be joined by local artists, art historians, curators, and activists including Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, Maria Kjær Themsen, and Tone Olaf Nielsen in a series of presentations and panel discussions. Olivia Plender will do a perfomative audience survey, involving the forum participants and audience alike. For more information on past, current and upcoming events, please see: www.termsofbelonging.org

Showing concurrently in Overgaden’s 1st floor space is Ahmet Ögüt and Cevdet Erek with the exhibition Ahmet Cevdet Bey Presents Tunnel of Fear, a collaboration between Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts and Overgaden, curated by Celenk Bafra and Kathrine Bolt Rasmussen.

For further information about both exhibitions, please contact press officer Anna Holm at ah@overgaden.org, or call +45 3257 7273. High-resolution press images can be downloaded from the website: www.overgaden.org under ‘Press’ and ‘Current’.