17th foxhole meeting

The 17th foxhole approaches. foxhole meetings aspire to assist independent curators and self-organized entities; the project is interested in creating and supporting its own safe zone or “foxhole” of self-sufficiency in Stockholm. The project is co-curated by Jacquelyn Davis & Kristina Lindemann.

Skills of Economy & Post Models

Recently, Keynesian tradition and political economy has offered most relevant counter forces against neoliberal financial economy—reminding of a world where different areas of politics and disciplines must have a non-hierarchical position in relation to one another. Can artistic practices understood as hybrids go beyond politicized economy through re-imagining autonomy and instrumentalization? Jussi Koitela will focus on his curatorial project “Skills of Economy” and recent exhibition “Post Models: Ore.e Refineries” at SIC Space realized within it.

“Skills of Economy” is a curatorial concept dealing with contemporary artists’ actions towards the current economic situation and concept of ‘economy’ as a whole. Economic rhetoric occupies media space in our Western world; it has become an important means to describe the world and its progress. “Skills of Economy” researches and archives contemporary artistic reactions in our societal situation.

Art & Crisis: Working as Curator in Greece

Politics as an unavoidable necessity, being inescapably occupied with the site-specific—where the ‘site’ is as abstract as the current situation, in a shrunken world where every move effects your everyday life. Being in Greece suddenly positions one in the middle of action—in a difficult, complicated way. The surrounding world’s questioning gaze looks for blunders; the Greeks’ own self-examination mixed with mass depression and unemployment, as well as an absurd domestic policy where changes and regulations occur every month, makes arts freelancing in Greece as difficult as convincing a Greek politician the value of contemporary art (impossible). While the country experiences its 6th year of recession, working conditions are almost unnecessary to point out—bad. So: how does one manage to work in these circumstances? How does anyone work in this context? What does ‘work’ in a setting like this mean? Sofia Mavroudis will share her perspective.

Foxhole Meeting #17
Date: Thursday, 9.18, 2014
Time: 7-9 pm
Location: Minibar Artist Space
Address: Hälsingegatan 33, 113 31 Stockholm
T-bana: Odenplan / S:t Eriksplan

7 – 7:45 pm: Jussi Koitela’s presentation + Q&A
7:45 – 8:30: Sofia Mavroudis’s presentation + Q&A
8:30 – 9pm: WAYWO book launch + mingle

Note: All meetings are open to the general public. Refreshments await.

September’s Invited Speakers

Jussi Koitela (b.1981) is a curator / visual artist based in Helsinki, Finland. As a curator, he is currently focused on artists’ reactions to economic discourses and realities. Recent curatorial work: “To Use As a Capital” at One Night Only Gallery / Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo; “Skills of Economy” – “Post Models: Ore.e Refineries” exhibition at SIC Space, Helsinki; “Dissolving Frontiers” at Hiap / Gallery Augusta, Helsinki. Upcoming selected curatorial work: “Floating Ghost” project at Manifesta 10 On Board and What is Monumental Today? Seminar at Smolny Institute, St.Petersburg and “Not Another Public Process” exhibition at Upper Art, Bergamo.
www.jussikoitela.com / www.skillsofeconomy.com

Sofia Mavroudis is manager / curator of the commercial Mare Gallery—200 square meters of contemporary Greek and international art—which she created and installed last year in Crete. Artists exhibited: Swedish Meta Isaeus-Berlin, German Simon Schubert and Greek Kostas Tsolis. She is also founder of the non-profit research and process-based organization Curare art: a platform with no geographic location and has been freelancing in Sweden, Greece and ‘cyberspace.’ A Swede with Greek roots, Mavroudis has worked between these two countries since 2008, turning her house in Athens into an exhibition space for her 1st curated show. She attended Konstfack’s CuratorLab (2011-12) and has worked with galleries, institutions and organizations in both Sweden and Greece.
www.curareart.com / www.maregallery.gr

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Additionally: WAYWO Book Launch

What are you working on? / Vad har du på gång? a popular phrase at an art-opening. What are you working on? Where one’s individual answer is the definition of one’s self-justification. I act, produce and think, therefore I am. The WAYWO project is a self-fulfilling travel through the contemporary art process. I define what I do, therefore I am. Artists Ulrika Sparre and Hanna Ljungh initiated the project Vad har du på gång? / WAYWO in 2012 through a common search. WAYWO launches a new publication edited by Jacquelyn Davis including texts from various international writers, artists and theorists who discuss and approach the concept of the new, time and our time.

WAYWO participated in Art-Athina, Athens 2013 and during August-September 2013, an exhibition took place at Husby Konsthall in Stockholm’s suburb Husby—together with invited artist Zuzanna Janin and philosopher / writer Lars-Erik Hjertström Lappalainen. The exhibition itself and surrounding conversations prove to be complex, intricate and, at times, purposefully inconclusive to support the notion that unfixed, continuous thought in flux (and creative journeys supported by such) proves to be just as significant as singular points on the map—or any justified position worth defending.

Contributors: Harold Abramowitz, Jacob Dahlgren & Juste Kostikovaite, Alicia Eggert, Adrijana Gvozdenović & Vijai Patchineelam, Lars-Erik Hjertström Lappalainen, Dan Karlholm, Andrey Kharitonov, Emma Kihl, Egle Kulbokaite & Carl Palm, Hanna Ljungh & Ulrika Sparre, Paulina Olszewska, Annika Pettersson, Agnieszka Rayzacher, Jan Rydén, Alberta Vengrytė, Jacquelyn Davis (Ed.)

www.waywo.se / www.valeveil.se/project/special-editions


Image (left): Trans-Horse HKI-TKU-HKI. Photo by Ore.e Refineries. Image (right): Untitled. Photo by Sofia Mavroudis

2014.09.14