Det Kanon!
EVENING LECTURES
at U-TURN, Vester Voldgade 96, Copenhagen.
A discussion of the canonization of art and culture accelerated in Denmark when in January 2006 the cultural ministry published The Danish Cultural Canon. Det Kanon! is a series of lectures within the framework of U-TURN. It looks back at artistic practices that have deliberately or accidentally resisted canonization while nonetheless remaining crucial to an understanding of contemporary art, which is to a high degree performative, event-oriented, interventionist, and conceptual. Contributors are artists as well as art and literary critics.
PROGRAM
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28th of February 5pm
Jakob Jakobsen & Mikkel Bolt will discuss the Scandinavian Situationism.
Wed. 18 Apr 5pm
Kirsten Dufour, Finn Thybo, and Jytte Rex “Kanonklubben"
Wed. 2 May 5pm
Eric Andersen “Før eller siden – Parallelle tidslommer” (Sooner or later – parallel time-eddies)
Wed. 30 May 5pm
Tania Ørum “Tekst – billede – lyd” (Text – Image – Sound)
Wed. 6 July 5pm
Lars Bang Larsen “John Davidsen”
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These lectures will be held in Danish
Det Kanon! will not concern itself with formulating an alternative canon for art that has hitherto been excluded from museum collections and the existing canon. Instead, U-TURN wishes to discuss the means and methods of history writing. Under the playful title Det Kanon! (which refers to Danish words for canon, cannon, and slang for something great or cool) U-TURN has invited the above artists and critics to share fascinating, humorous, political, and conceptual art projects from the 2nd half of the 20th century. Avant-garde art not only revised the categories of painting and sculpture, but also challenged the very concept of the artwork itself along with its systems of distribution/exhibition, including the latter’s attendant formulation of categories, hierarchies, and customary modes of presentation and audience-creation, etc. For these reasons, avant-garde practices form a vital historical backdrop for understanding the art of today.
Det Kanon! is part of the pre-program (entitled “The Meta-Exhibition”) of U-TURN Quadrennial for Contemporary Art in Denmark 2008. The Meta-Exhibition is a ‘slow-show’, which offers an opportunity to reflect on the quadrennial and its context, even as the former continues to evolve.