Tuesday 1. November, 17.30 - 22.00

Wednesday 2. November, 17.30 - 22.00

Deichmanske Bibliotek Tøyen

Hagegata 28, 0653 Oslo

Oslo, Norway

Entrance free, registration required

Prologue 2: Art and Media Activism – Strategies for Political Change

How does activist art obtain political impact when playing by the rules of the media? What are the medial means by which art activism becomes an agent for political change? Which communicative strategies may be applied to strengthen the force of a political message?

The First Supper Symposium is delighted to invite you to the second part of its symposium series on art activism, investigating the relationship between contemporary art practices and politics. In this edition, Eirik Myrhaug, Center for Political Beauty, The Yes Men, Ekaterina Sharova, Deep Dish TV, Shannon Jackson, Media Impact Moscow, and moderator Trine Krigsvoll Haagensen will engage and activate the audience in unfolding the means by which art activism may become an agent for change in a world of political and economic crisis.

The relation between dominant political powers and strategies of resistance is continuously developing and changing. Some artists and activists respond to this situation by embracing new media and its dynamics of clickable actions and events. Others respond by withdrawing from the media circus, aiming instead to work on a micro-level, in the shadows or in anonymity. In the words of American activist Audre Lorde, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change”. Is she correct? Are we trapped within the monster’s stomach, or provided with new possibilities for dismantling and disclosing injustice and abuse, rearranging existing power relations?

The First Supper Symposium wishes to reflect upon the methods and contexts of art activism in order to create a platform where art may have real impact in changing politics and economies, aiming at an ever-expanding connection between artistic practice, research and public space. We invite the audience to engage as participants, contributors and users of our symposium platform to investigate contemporary strategies for articulation, action, influence and change. Guided by ideas of democracy, freedom of speech and economic equality, we understand our project as a relational, performative, experimental and flexible platform where discussions and new knowledge is being produced.

PROGRAM - 1. November 2016:

Moderator Trine Krigsvoll Haagensen, NO

17.30 - 22.00; drinks and food provided

• Eirik Myrhaug - Sami activist and shaman, NO
• Audience / participant contribution through creative dialogue and critical analysis, more drinks available
• Center for Political Beauty, Yasser Almaamoun - Syrian activist and architect, SY/D
• Audience / participant contribution
• The Yes Men, Mike Bonanno - artist, activist and associate professor of media arts, US
• Audience / participant contribution
• National Apology - Pia Maria Roll, actor and theater director and Marius von der Fehr, artist and activist, NO
• Audience / participant contribution

PROGRAM - 2. November 2016:

Moderator Trine Krigsvoll Haagensen, NO

17.30 - 22.00; drinks and food provided

• Eirik Myrhaug - Sami activist and shaman, NO
• Audience / participant contribution through creative dialogue and critical analysis, more drinks available
• Deep Dish TV, Brian Drolet- activist and executive director, US
• Audience / participant contribution
• Shannon Jackson - Associate Vice Chancellor for the Arts + Design, Director, Arts Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, US
• Audience / participant contribution
• Media Impact Moscow (Mediaudar), Tatiana Volkova, Pavlo Mitenko, Make Makovich - art activist  platform, RU
• Audience / participant contribution
• Ekaterina Sharova - art historian and curator, Arkhangelsk, RU
• Audience / participant contribution

We will be screening the film Art and Censorship, "A production of WhiteBox, NY, World Première by Juan Puntes, WBX artistic director". 

Prologue 2: Art and Media Activism - Strategies for Political Change forms part two of a series of three symposia on art activism in Oslo. The Symposium held in June 2016 was titled Prologue 1: Art Activism - White Cube vs Public Space

Supported by KORO Public Art Norway, Arts Council Norway, Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond and Deichmanske Bibliotek Tøyen.

FSS is a collaborative art project focusing on art activism, feminism and political issues. Current members Gidsken Braadlie, Lisa Pacini and Camilla Dahl are collaborating with Hanan Benammar and Ragnhild Tronstad on the Prologue symposia.

First Supper Symposium (FSS)

FSS is a collaborative art project and grassroots organisation based in Oslo that investigates art activism, feminism and critical social issues. We understand ourselves as part of the “social turn” in contemporary art, with a focus on the complex relationship between art and society, activism and politics, democracy and neoliberalism. Our aim is to move the practice and research of contemporary art into public space and life, thus understanding our project as a performative, experimental and flexible platform where discussions and new knowledge is being produced. Democracy is a process, not a static system, and therefore needs to be continually addressed, questioned, dissected, related and reshaped.

We are, in 2016-17, staging three symposia investigating the term of art activism and the actions and strategies of art activists. Our preferred method is to invite both well-established and emerging theoreticians to participate in discussions with art activists and artists in order to shed light on political, social and economic urgent challenges. The titles are:

“Prologue 1: Art Activism – White Cube vs Public Space” 22nd June 2016

“Prologue 2: Art and Media Activism – Strategies for Political Change” 1st and 2nd November 2016. Entrance free, registration required

“Prologue 3: Art Activism and Feminism in the Middle East”

With Prologue 1, 2 and 3 First Supper Symposium aims to build an investigative platform where the structure should be experimental and process-oriented, and the outcome must remain open so that discussions can have a creative potential and make room for new ideas, strategies and forms of activism.

The Prologues will enable dialogue and discussion on several current issues surrounding art activism. They will examine how mass media and social media are used as a tool in the global dissemination of political activism; how feminist movements internationally can contribute to a new understanding of the term feminism inserted in a multicultural context. They will also look at how the choice of communication rooms can affect the effectiveness of the political message: White Cube vs Public Space.

For each Prologue we are inviting international art activists and theorists to talk about their work, which will be debated together with the participating audience. We will have a flat structure where lecturers, activists and the audience are sitting in a big circle, so that the threshold to participate in the discussion is lowered. Method of circular sitting therefore will focus on the democratic principle of equality and participation.

The space between autonomous art and political and social art is a diffuse area, as both the political effect and the aesthetic quality of art activism can often be questionable. In FSS we attempt to reflect upon the methods and contexts of art activism - the space where art may change politics and economies to aim at an ever expanding field of freedom of speech and economic sustainability.