SEMINAR DAY 1 : REVOLUTION

12·00  – 15·30 — Seminar Day 1 : REVOLUTION
Location: Tou Scene, Kvitsøygata 25

From the Berlin wall to the Palestine wall and Syria, unsanctioned art has often been used to give voice to the voiceless - providing an outlet for expression that is suppressed by regimes and dictators in all its other forms. What parallels are there between these historical acts of resistance and the wider street art movement, which today operates within an increasingly privatized and controlled public space? What can we learn from studying the ethnographic, anthropological and sociological implications of street art practice, and what does this tell us about the power of art to change the world?

12:00-12:15 Welcome and introduction
by Pedro Soares Neves (PT), Lisbon Urban & Street Art Creativity
‘Power and the city’

12:15-13.00 Promises not kept: Art, the art institution and social change
Keynote speech by Mikkel Bolt (DE)

If we zoom in and look at the art institution from the inside, from within the framework of its relative autonomy, we can, on the one hand, observe the art institution as a space for political discussion and militant actions that rarely takes place elsewhere, which is also why artists and cultural producers played a leading part in Occupy Wall Street in New York in September 2011 for instance. On the other hand, contemporary art is the window dressing and sale of only apparently critical utterances or forms that in no way challenge the ruling taste, but, on the contrary have become indistinguishable from all the other forms of aesthetic entertainment. Contemporary art is no longer just a research and development unit of advanced capitalism but is part and parcel of an all-encompassing experience economy on a level with advertising, fashion, music, TV and games.

In this presentation, Mikkel Bolt will attempt to account for this paradox and ask how we can potentially re-work or end it in an era characterized by crisis and the revival of authoritarian nationalism. 

13:15-14.15 Revolution, From the Artist’s Perspective

Artist presentations by Carrie Reichardt (UK) and Igor Ponosov (RU) followed by a Q&A session with Evan Pricco (US)

14:30-14:50 From Cairo: I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing
Artist presentation by Bahia Shehab (EG)

Six years since the Egyptian uprising the voices that chanted in Tahrir Square have been silenced. The city and its walls do not tolerate anything but the white wash that has covered all the stories. Since 2014, Bahia Shehab has been painting poetry on different walls in different cities around the world. Even if this act is meaningless now, it is a way to leave songs on walls so that maybe change will come one day.

14:50-16:00 Nerifiti’s Daughter (Scandinavian Premiere)
Film screening followed by Q&A with Bahia Shehab
Hosted by Mikkel Bolt

A story of women, art and revolution, Nefertiti’s Daughters (running time: 39mins) documents the critical role that revolutionary street art played - and is continuing to play - in the political uprising of Egypt.

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