May 19–23, 2017
Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA) and OSLO PILOT are hosting and organising the 2017 International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT) Congress in Norway (May 19–23), together with the North Consortium. Around 130 curators from all over the world will attend the five-day congress in Oslo (three days) and Tromsø (two days).
This is the first time the IKT Congress is taking place in Norway, and the Congress’ programme has been designed to provide to IKT members an exceptional opportunity to discover Oslo and Tromsø. Oslo’s vibrant art scene will be explored through an extensive programme punctuated by a series of visits to major institutions including: Astrup Fearnley Museet, Ekeberg Sculpture Park, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Kunstnernes Hus, SALT, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, OCA, and OSLO PILOT. In addition, the programme will connect with one of the most important characteristics of Oslo’s dynamic arts scene: its numerous artist-run spaces and contemporary art initiatives, including 1857, Fotogalleriet, Kunstnerforbundet, Melk, NoPlace, Oslo Kunstforening, Podium and Schloss, among others. The second part of the Congress will continue in Tromsø, May 22–23, offering an introduction to the complex and unique art scene of Northern Norway, with presentations at the Academy of Contemporary Art and Creative Writing by the Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF), the North Norwegian Art Centre (NNKS), Røst AiR residency programme, the Sami Center for Contemporary Art, and the Center of Northern Peoples. Additionally, there will be walking tours to locations like Tromsø Kunstforening, Perspektivet Museum, the Northern Norway Art Museum, and artists-run spaces Kurant and Small Projects, among others.
Click here to see a day-by-day outline of the IKT Norway 2017 Congress programme.
Symposium: Sunday, May 21 at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO). Open to all with free admission.
The Congress will include a public symposium curated by Katya García-Antón (Director of OCA), Eva González-Sancho and Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk (makers and curators of OSLO PILOT), in collaboration with Vanessa Joan Müller representing the IKT board. The symposium will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the first Sami congress organised by Elsa Laula Renberg in Tråante (South Sami for Trondheim) in 1917. To honor this congress, the year-long celebration “Tråante 2017” began on February 6, 2017, which has also come to mark a national day for Norway and a jubilee for Sami people in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.
Confirmed speakers include David Garneau, an artist working with Métis identity and Associate Professor in Visual Arts at the University of Regina; Gunvor Guttorm, Rector at Sámi University of Applied Sciences, Guovdageaidnu (Northern Sami for Kautokeino); Geir Tore Holm, artist and independent curator; Jan-Erik Lundström, curator, critic, historian of contemporary art and photography, and Director of the Sámi Center for Contemporary Art; Hilde Methi, independent curator; Anne May Olli, Director at Riddo Duottar Museat, a complex of four Sámi museums and an art collection in Western Finnmark; and Ánde Somby, a traditional Sami yoiker and an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law at UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø.
For inquiries, please contact project coordinator Jessica MacMillan.
About the organisers:
The International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT) is a members’ organisation that brings together curators from across the world to meet, share knowledge, exchange ideas and broaden their professional networks. IKT was founded in 1973 and its early members included groundbreaking curators such as Eberhard Roters, Eddy de Wilde and Harald Szeemann. The aim of the organisation is to stimulate and extend debates concerning curatorial practice, and to promote curatorial excellence.
The Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA) is a foundation created by the Norwegian Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs in 2001 to develop cultural collaborations between Norway and the international arts scene. Currently directed by Katya García-Antón, OCA curates national and international exhibitions, seminars and publications, supports Norwegian artist’s and curator’s projects abroad, and invites international curators and artists to Norway for research purposes. Since 2001, OCA has been responsible for curating the Nordic Pavilion in the Venice Biennale.
OSLO PILOT is a project investigating the role of art in and for the public realm. Combining newly produced artworks with collaborative partnerships with arts institutions, this experimental initiative has set out to lay the groundwork for a future periodic art event in the Norwegian capital. Curated by Eva González-Sancho and Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk, OSLO PILOT’s working process is based on collaborations with artists, poets, curators, writers, and other specialists in diverse fields, to explore new ways of working in the public realm and to create a critical framework and a long-term strategy for future production. OSLO PILOT is an initiative of the Agency for Cultural Affairs in the City of Oslo.
The North Consortium, organized by The Polar Museum and Northern Norwegian Art Museum, is a collaboration specially formed for the IKT Congress and includes different art institutions located in Northern Norway and Sápmi.
The IKT Congress in Norway is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; The Agency for Cultural Affairs, City of Oslo; the Spanish Embassy in Norway; and the Norwegian Consulate General in New York. In Tromsø the programme is supported by The Cultural Business Development Foundation SpareBank 1 Nord-Norge.
Further support is generously provided by Astrup Fearnley Museet, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO), and The Museum of Contemporary Art (The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo).
