Book launch
The Reader, The Viewer and some temporalities
The 10th edition of Momentum has closed its doors. 29 artists conformed a dialogue in time. Some of the presented artists were back to Momentum after participating in previous editions reformulating artworks and situations. New artists were also part of the biennial in this asynchronic dialogue happening at present time. Before Momentum10 was opened the publication titled “The Reader” was released with interviews with previous curators of the biennial in Moss and some historical observations. Now we present “The Viewer”, a publication that documents the artworks and the biennial.
For the release of The Viewer of Momentum10 “The Emotional Exhibition”, (Saskia Holmkvist,) Dag Aak Sveinar and Marti Manen -curator of the biennial- will talk about temporalities, systems of production, archive desires and the exhibition in Moss.
As part of the Momentum10 opening programme a group of students from KHiO was invited to participate. The invitation resulted in The Suitors, a curatorial framework for a series of fulfilled and unfulfilled works produced in dialog with Momentum, as well as a publication. Students from The Art Academy in Oslo have been working parallel to and in dialogue with Marti Manen and The Emotional Exhibition. For this event, master students from the Art Academy in Oslo will present their publication, The Suitors, and the collaboration process with Momentum10.
Marti Manen, curator and art writer based in Stockholm. He has curated exhibitions at Museo de Historia Natural (Mexico City), Aara (Bangkok), Sala Rekalde (Bilbao), Konsthall C (Stockholm), Ca2M (Madrid), Miró Foundation (Barcelona) and was the curator of the Spanish pavilion at Venice Biennale 2015. At the end of the 90’s he curated a five year-program of exhibitions in his student room. He has been working recently as a curator at the Public Art Agency Sweden and Konstfack (Stockholm). Marti Manen has published books like Salir de la exposición (To leave the exhibition) published by Consonni, Contarlo todo sin saber cómo (Telling everything not knowing how) published by Ca2M or When Lines Are Time published by Miró Foundation.
Saskia Holmkvist’s work explores questions of agency and professionalized language through fractured narratives, employing performance, orality, moving image and improvisation. In a hybrid form of realism, Holmkvist appropriates typical scenarios to serve as allegory and example. Many works use the interview as a form of storytelling to address consequences of translatability of subjects in relation to historical trajectories drawing from fields such as interpretation, psychology, journalism, and improvisational theatre. The protagonists are often invited specialists from various professional fields to interact through performative encounters, direction and improvisation. In the process strategies of the documentary are retooled with performative interaction to focus on verbal speculation.
Dag Aak Sveinar has been the director of Punkt Ø – Galleri F 15 and Momentum since 2007. Sveinar became a Master of Arts at the University in Oslo in 1985 and has since that been working in art institutions in Norway: Munch-museum (1986), Museum of Contemporary Art (1989), The Art Council (1993), Public Art Norway (1996), The National Travel Exhibitions (1997), The National Museum (2005), Jugendstilsenteret og Kunstmuseet Kube (2005).