What Momentum Wants

Sissel Lillebostad

"Critique without utopia is empty, but utopia without critique is blind." Simon Critchley.
A brief review of the catalogues (and the press) for Momentum 1998–2006.

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Momentum 1998, Pakkhus Kuratorer: Atle Gerhardsen, Daniel Birnbaum og Lars Bang Larsen.

Moss 1998. It is 103 years since the Venice Biennale first opened in Giardini with the expressed aims, on the one hand, of creating an art market and, on the other, of benefitting the city's reputation by attracting international attention. That attention, in turn, was to be secured on a long-term basis by means of regular repetition and constant innovation. It was this reciprocal promise that laid the foundations for biennials as we know them today. As Caroline A. Jones has pointed out, it is the fact that a biennial has a history that enables it to become an arena for continuous renewal of the present into the future. "Such claims for futurity must always be placed in relation to a past."1

So, what does Moss want of Momentum? And what does Momentum want?

Momentum – the aims

When Momentum - Nordisk festival for samtidskunst (Momentum – Nordic Festival of Contemporary Art) first presented itself to the world, it underlined the seriousness of its ambitions by calling itself a biennial. According to the catalogue, 1998 was the year against which the future would be measured. The catalogue for Momentum talks about a festival "driven by local enthusiasm and community spirit", with a handful of local patriots following up an idea they had conceived in 1994. It would take us far beyond the scope of this short article to examine what happened between 1994 and 1998, but in their origins the biennials of Venice and Moss do appear to have a few things in common – at least when viewed in hindsight. Promotion of their respective cities and a conquest of the future have been defining objectives right from the start. In 1893 Riccardo Selvatico put forward the idea that Venice should establish an "institution of public utility and benefit", and in 1894 it was decided that it should be international and recurring.2

Moss also wanted to promote itself through contemporary art. The young, Nordic art scene was future-oriented. So too was the town of Moss, wrote Mayor Gretha Kant. As chairperson for the festival's advisory committee, Åse Kleveland used similar rhetoric in her appraisal of Moss' potential: "Momentum will profile Moss as a town that chose to focus on the innovative and adventurous". She emphasises that, in addition to possessing significant intrinsic value, art can also "be a motor for social development". Chairman of the board Carl August Heilmann and director Egil Jegleim hope that there will be reciprocal benefits from a close collaboration also in the future.3

This notion of reciprocal benefits is evidently as alive today as it was a century ago. Visibility is perhaps the one objective over which biennials have least control. Even so, Venice had certain advantages. In 1895, tourism was just starting to get going; the growth of railways, the invention of the camera, the first guidebooks and the "grand tour" – the very symbol of self-cultivation among the privileged class – all helped Venice to position itself. These factors have hardly been of the same benefit to Moss. Although it was already scrutinising the field of Nordic art in the years prior to the "Pakkhus" exhibition, Moss was by no means a major tourist destination, either for an educated elite or for the common herd. Curators use the term "Nordic miracle" to denote a recent awakening in the Nordic art scene. But it was also curators who poured cold water on the town's ardent enthusiasm to market itself internationally. "'Pakkhus' is one among many exhibitions of contemporary art" , they wrote, and it will "hardly feel particularly Nordic". Exposure offers an opportunity to intensify the discourse about art, and this is best done by discussing it on the basis of more fundamental assessments. Venice, which built on the idea of the World Exhibition, solved the challenge of visibility by inviting countries to set up national pavilions. To ensure they received widespread attention, the Biennale invited all participants to take part in the opening – a party that has since evolved into the art industry's most important get-together.

Brand names

The biennials that have managed to establish lasting positions in the international context are all known by the names of the cities where they take place: Havana, Istanbul, São Paulo, Berlin, Kwangju, Sydney. The national is undersold while that which is specific, the place, is emphasised as a point where impulses converge. Two biennials stand out in this list with so many city names: Manifesta and Momentum – Manifesta for obvious reasons, since it happens at a different location each time, while for Momentum, the choice of name is justified by what it is the biennial is meant to show (young Nordic contemporary art) and how it is meant to show it (as a bi-annual status report). How exactly this ambition is to be implemented is something both the curators and the festival directors have since had to think hard about.

At Pakkhus, and in the town of Moss, there will be spaces that stimulate better visions than narcotic drugs, and rooms where it will be impossible not to fall in love. It is a pakkhus (warehouse) named desire …

In his article "Jeg kom til verden på 5. sal" (I was born in room 5), Bang Larsen considers the various hopes involved – and the scope for disappointment – when seeking to transform a range of wishes into a festival of contemporary art. As a location, Moss is characterised as having the spirit of a "gritty working-class town". As an arena for art, the town has few ideological or historical associations; it is an "anywhere". If you can arrange an international festival of contemporary art in Moss, then you could do it anywhere. The undefined boundaries between various types of private and public space, is a recurrent theme of Larsen's text. He points out that these amorphous spaces could be viewed as essentially either public or private. There are codes that are recognised by insiders, but not all art is comprehensible to everyone. The intention is to show what is happening "right now", with reference to the keywords sex, rationality, ecstasy, urbanity and unemployment. The frame for the whole thing was the Central Pakkhus (Central Warehouse), a building that would later be reborn as a cinema and a library.

The reception, as illustrated here by Ina Blom's response in Frieze, was not entirely positive: "Festival culture is the revenge of the little cities – now you have to actually visit them – and the new Momentum festival of contemporary art in the small and smelly industrial city of Moss is a case in point." For those who visited the newly established biennial, the good intentions and slightly unfocused gaze so typical of Scandinavian festivals were in evidence here as well. According to Blom, several of the artists latched onto the legacy of functional design, presenting economical versions of industrial surfaces, although the works also touched on what she refers to as "the darker victories of style".5

The catalogue contains material from forty artists; it mentions a prize (the Elephant Prize, funded by the main sponsor M. Peterson & Son AS), a Nordic video bank in its earliest infancy – a collaboration with NIFCA – local roots and an international focus, and thousands of unpaid work hours. The catalogue is financed from a mixture of public funds and private-sector sponsorship, from among others the Danish Contemporary Art Foundation, Rygge- Vaaler Sparebank, Peterson Linerboard Ltd, and donations from the Thomas Fearnley Foundation (Stiftelsen Thomas Fearnley, Heddy og Nils Astrup). The contributions to the Momentum '98 International Art Conferences I–III – with a list of speakers that include Simon Critchley, Sven-Olov Wallenstein, Donald Kuspit and Ina Blom – are published in a book funded by the Norwegian Research Council.6

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Momentum 2000

In 2000 the festival is expanded to include architecture and design, and features the work of forty-one artists and eleven designers. A festival atmosphere is guaranteed by a programme of events in Nesparken during the exhibition period. The fact that this time the catalogue texts are exclusively in English represents a significant step towards catering to an international audience.

The authors Heilmann and Jegleim give voice to a profound optimism, for example, in passages that stress Moss' determination to be "recognized as a place for art and design". They also express an explicit desire that the festival should continue to be dynamic and exploratory within the field of contemporary art. In their own article, the curators Ina Blom, Jonas Ekeberg, Jacob Fabricius and Paula Toppila enter into direct dialogue with their potential audience. One typical feature of much of contemporary art, they write, is the demands that works make on the viewer's time and attention. The artworks draw the viewer into "extended situations and environments. All of these tendencies challenge the typical walk-through or circulation implied by the architectural structure […] since the impulse to move on often makes one feel that there is never enough time to really engage with the work." .
The curators seek to solve this dilemma by situating the exhibition in a park. A park offers a different way of relating to the artworks when it is treated as a space for leisurely strolls among the works.7

The view from abroad, as here formulated by Jörg Heiser in Frieze, is that Momentum is a festival that encompasses all kinds of clichés about social life in Scandinavia: "its peculiar mix of community and individual eccentricity; light-hearted gatherings in spring meadows; its taste for heart-stirring, serious art and both brightly coloured folklore and functional minimalism – before letting it all collapse in a celebratory heap." The opening ceremony is described as a caricature of folksiness, with "Prince Eric of Norway" (sic) sitting on his ornate royal chair beside an equally decorated general, while a brass band fills the air with the sound of horns and drums beneath fluttering flags.8

It might seem like the somewhat unfocused festival atmosphere has been packaged here to suit popular tastes. This is a familiar approach in the case of regional festivals that seek to reaffirm local identity, something the curators probably recognised early in the process and responded to by adding yet another twist to the folksiness, tipping it over into the absurd – with a wry glance at art's interest in complexity. Heiser is also aware of this paradox when he adds: "The only difference was that the show, as opposed to the opening ceremony, did it intentionally." In his view, the works are expressive of a deep ambivalence that shifts between loving solicitude and sudden paranoia.

Mediation to the art field

The seemingly nimble, celebratory aspect described in Frieze, is actively contradicted by the catalogue. Each artist is given a thorough presentation with special emphasis on the individual style of expression. The curators have written a joint introduction, which discusses both the intentions and issues that have arisen along the way. In a separate article, "A Question of Style", Ina Blom delves deep into the themes of art and style, inscribing the various works into an investigative discourse. The works are "exercises in style and narratives on style", she concludes. We live in an over-designed world where it seems that anything can be used to represent a particular style. Blom refers to a 1979 book by Dick Hebdige, which describes various British youth cultures and their use of visual signals as a form of symbolic opposition to a prevailing ideology. Style can manifest itself as noise, as exaggeration, as the dissolution of meaning. Style makes you visible, but not necessarily understandable, writes Blom. In her text she argues that both art and style, in their role as media of resistance, are dependent on context – which presupposes in turn a broad sensitivity to references and the use of codes. "To place yourself at the center of attention while refusing to yield any precise meaning amounts to a destruction of given codes, and through this perhaps also a transformation of the social 'reality' itself."9

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Momentum 2004

Mediation to the general public

In addition to an educational programme called "Interactive" aimed at children and adolescents, Gardar Eide Einarsson and Matias Faldbakken are listed as "Guides". Under the heading "Mediation of Specialized Art to a Fragmented Public", visitors are invited to find their own individual approach to each work. Different artworks appeal to people with specific interests, they write, and the task here is to convey a broader understanding of the context to which each work relates.

Nesparken is also the setting for "Moment Events" – a programme of performative events held on the six weekends of the festival period. Judging by the descriptions, this part of the event would have appealed to those fond of a dance, the technologically curious and the playfully nerdy. Contributing performers included Motherboard, Johanna Billing, and Markus and Seppo Renvall. The latter promised tango, sauna and various social games.

This packed programme of a biennial was followed by a few years full of doubts and delays. Momentum was reorganised, refinanced and relocated. The artistic platform was also subjected to a reorientation. It is Momentum's ambition to be interesting to an international audience, writes the new director, Jørn Mortensen, although "it is questionable whether, in the long run, a Nordic group exhibition would achieve that aim". The 2004 edition solves this dilemma by declaring the Nordic countries themselves to be an object for artistic investigation. Mortensen wants to lift the gaze and "haul art away from its navel contemplation and back into reality". Art should be relevant to people.

The Nordic region is examined not only in the exhibition. The catalogue is an impressive piece of work, with a series of articles that shake up notions about Nordic consensus, the welfare model, feminism, the rhetoric of pedestrianism, substance abuse and purity. Lars Bang Larsen contributes once again, this time with an analysis of art activism – which is characterised as not unambiguously good. Activism in general consists in a direct intervention in public space. Art activism in particular includes an element of cultural interpretation. It carries promises of freedom "defined by the idealistic philosophies of the 19th century", while at the same time celebrating the collective. Art is an act that takes place in a social space, Bang Larsen writes, but: "when a form of action insists that its own logic is good or free, it will unavoidably be transformed into a commodity or emblem of either markets or the political system."11

The curators Per Gunnar Tverbakk and Caroline Corbetta problematise one of the dilemmas of art, namely that "[i]n a word, it cannot provide a map of reality on the scale of 1:1 without running the risk of becoming reality itself". Both art and reality entail myriad contexts that can be interpreted and understood in countless ways. Although art is now viewed as a discursive activity, writes Tverbakk, the institution is able to preserve this unstable category, with the exhibition inviting audiences to become participants in self-reflective activity, whereby "… the weight [is shifted] from the thing experienced to looking at the experience itself". As a curator, Tverbakk is well aware of frictions in the way art communicates with the public. "An audience can easily feel cheated if it finds nothing in an exhibition but reconstructions of site-oriented processes and actions that have already taken place elsewhere. […] This does not provide a conducive basis for dialogue and confrontation."14

The fact that all the artists in the "Park" event are Nordic is noted by Art Forum critic Liutauras Psibilskis. The preponderance of men (30 out of 39) also prompts comment. Psibilskis points out the discrepancy between, on the one hand, the conference and the catalogue – with their thoughtful and analytical texts – and, on the other, the exhibition, which lacked the same theoretical commitment. Nonetheless, Psibilskis feels that Momentum has an important function as a forum "in which dominant conceptions of [Nordic] realities can be tested."15

In collaboration with the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), Momentum 2004 arranged a seminar, where the participants included, among others, Lars Bang Larsen, Ina Blom, Roger M. Buergel and Ute Meta Bauer.

Each artist is given a two-page presentation with both text and images. Other forms of mediation are not discussed in the catalogue.
The only stipulation director Jørn Mortensen made to the curators was that Momentum should not confine itself to the Nordic countries, even if the focus throughout is on young Nordic art. The two curators discuss their curatorial choices in terms of artistic strategies involving the notion of the absurd, which offer a point of access to reflections on satire, utopia, manifestos, repetition, perversity and melancholy.

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Momentum 2006

They point out how "visions of radical change have been a powerful driving force for many [artists]". Even so, one also notices an underlying tone of resignation in their texts. The present is seen as unfriendly, lacking in vision and utilitarian. In this situation, negation or absurdism "[…] suggest themselves as artistic methods. What might seem introverted or cryptic may well be coded messages of resistance, audible to those who care to listen."16 Repetition is to some extent cyclical; it tells us about something that has been, and something that will follow. One critical way of dealing with this, according to Mark Sladen, is to explore what we take for granted, the obvious, through the use of new and unexpected constellations. 17

Once again, we are taken on a journey of self-cultivation, primarily by means of a generous appendix with articles by Andrea Fraser, Lars Ramberg, Stephan Dillemuth, Hal Foster and others. These provide both a point of reference for the artworks and a source of input relating to the questions posed by the curators. Foster's contribution is perhaps especially relevant, with his thorough examination of "the condition of coming-after", in which he points out that formal transformation and social commitment "help to restore a mnemonic dimension to contemporary art".18 Foster gets to grips with various strategies of repetition used to process memories and history – in short the past – which he inscribes into a deeper understanding of our experience and the ways we modify trauma.
«"The pieces chosen to reflect these considerations made for a fine group show, but as a biennial 'Momentum' was slightly underwhelming", writes Melissa Gronlund in Frieze. Although she feels that Momentum 2006 does not meet the standard one would expect of a biennial, she is far from negative: "Much of the work on show responded to the site by extracting social content and memories from the surrounding architecture – both that of the city of Moss, where 'Momentum' is held, and elsewhere."19

There are thirty-one artists spread across 110 pages of a 180-page catalogue. A fixed set of questions, relating mostly to the concepts of the Nordic and the absurd, is put to all the artists, with all of them answering at greater or lesser length.22

On a later occasion, Annette Kierulf described this catalogue as an important part of the exhibition. "We reckoned it might be a good tool when we wanted to present the exhibition outside of Moss […] We wanted the catalogue to be like a book, and have a lasting impact."21 The fact that Momentum lacked the funds to distribute the book widely is another matter.

Not many people make it to Moss in time. I say this from personal experience. The catalogue therefore assumes an important role as mediation. A cautious summary of these events so far is that, from early on, Momentum stood out on account of its high level of ambition, something its organisers have maintained throughout the biennial's history of cyclical changes and reboots. The catalogues for the first four Momentums are well produced, with detailed presentations of the artists and curators, and serve readers as introductions to the themes addressed. They also convey a determination to highlight art's potential as a form of resistance to the prevailing spirit of the times. One feature of this resistance is the event's unrelentingly critical stance towards its own foundations and towards what might be referred to, in more contemporary terminology, as its core concern – the Nordic region. All Momentum curators to date assign to art the role of the critical observer and the guardian of the askance gaze.


1 Caroline A. Jones, "Biennial Culture: A longer history", in Elena Filipovic, Marieke van Hal, Solveig Øvstebø (eds.), The Biennial Reader. Haatje Cantz Verlag and Bergen Kunsthall, Ostfildern/Bergen 2010, p. 73.

2 Ibid., p. 73.

3 Quoted from the catalogue Pakkhus, Momentum AS, 1998, pp. 6, 8 and 9.

4 Lars Bang Larsen, Daniel Birnbaum, Atle Gerhardsen, "Pakkhus", ibid., p. 7.

5 Ina Blom, "Pakkhus", Frieze, September–October 1998, http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/pakkhus/ (accessed on 06.11.13).

6 Birgit Bærøe, Tarjei Mandt Larsen and John Rickard Sageng (eds.), Deterritorializations, art and aesthetics in the 90s, Spartacus Forlag and Bokförlaget Nya Doxa, 2000.

7 Ina Blom, Jonas Ekeberg, Jacob Fabricius and Paula Toppila, in Park. The main exhibition of Momentum – Nordic Festival of Contemporary Art 2000, Moss 2000, p. 7.

8 Jörg Heiser, "Momentum 2000", Frieze, Sept.-Oct. 2000, http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/momentum_2000/ (accessed on 02.11.13).

9 Ina Blom, "A Question of Style", in Park. The main exhibition of Momentum – Nordic Festival of Contemporary Art 2000, Moss 2000, pp. 12–13.

10 "Momentum remains faithful to the Nordic theme. For various reasons, this is a complex commitment. Firstly, it is difficult to limit the choice of artists to those from the region. Such a policy would in itself be exclusive and intolerant. Secondly, few (if any) artists from the region would explicitly define themselves as Nordic. Thirdly, the Nordic region is not just a geographic entity, but also a political idea, and as such it is in a state of change, not least because the Baltic stats now seek inclusion within the concept." Jørn Mortensen, in Momentum 2004, Momentum, Moss, 2004, p.5.

11 Lars Bang Larsen, "Attack the real issues: An essay on art activism and its history", in ibid., p. 33.

12 Carolina Corbetta, in ibid., p.11.

13 Olafur Eliasson, Colour memory and other informal shadows, Exhibition catalogue, Astrup Fearnley Museet for Samtidskunst, 2004:92, quoted by Tverbakk, ibid, s.15

14 Per Gunnar Tverbakk, in ibid., p.15.

15 Liutauras Psibilskis, "Momentum 2004", Art Forum, December 2004, http://www.mutualart.com/OpenArticle/MOMENTUM-2004/9F409A463DBCFFC1 (accessed on 05.11.2013).

16 Annette Kierulf, "Nicolai Klimitii iter subterrianum", in Try Again, Fail Again. Fail Better. Momentum, Moss 2006, pp.19.

17 Mark Sladen, ibid., p.22-29.

18 Hal Foster, "This funeral is for the wrong corpse (extract)", ibid., p. 151.

19 Melissa Gronlund, "Momentum 2006", Frieze, Nov.–Dec. 2006, http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/momentum_2006/ (accessed on 09.11.13).

20 1. What are the principal characteristics of your work as artist? 2. Do you feel part of a particular cultural or geographical region? 2. What is your experience of Norway and the Nordic region? 4. What will you present at Momentum? 5. Will your work relate to the site or context of Momentum and is this important? 6. What is your understanding of absurdity? 7. Is your work ever absurd?

21 Annette Kierulf, "Kunsten å lage en biennale", in Lokalisert, Ctrl+z publishing, Bergen 2009, p.166.

 

Kunstjournalen B-post #1_13: Assembly, Momentum, LIAF