Thursday 22 October 2009
7pm

What is the function of public space today? What defines it? How do we maintain it? Through reforms like New Public Management the structure of society has changed and the power has taken new forms. To understand art’s changing role in the public space, we have to analyze the major structural changes and investigate how they also influence the art sphere. Tone Hansen will discuss the basic juridical terms Allemannsretten (the public right to access) and Allmenning (Common land) in Scandinavia in order to shed light on a specific and vulnerable regulation that defines use of both public and private ground. Hansen vil use examples from the development of the Fjord City of Bjørvika in Oslo, as well as private initiatives such as the Capital Action that has created a set of aesthetic rules for the inner city. She will also visually represent the transition from a state that organizes its duties in the administrative bodies to a state that also manages its interests through state-owned enterprises.

Tone Hansen is an artist and curator who is currently working at the Henie Onstad Art Centre in Oslo, Norway. In 2003-2008 she was a research fellow at the National Academy of Fine Arts, Oslo, and chaired the Young Artists Society (uks) from 2001-2003. Projects include exhibitions and publications such as Megamonstermuseum; How to Imagine a Museum of Today?, the anthology The New Administration of Aesthetics (2007) and What Does Public Mean? Art as a Participant in the Public Arena (2007). Hansen has also organised a series of seminars and workshops such as A Framework for Contemporary Activism. Can Art Create A Public Sphere of its Own? and The New Administration of Aesthetics.

Tone Hansen’s stay in Malmö is part of a residency project organized by SparwasserHQ (Berlin) – Signal (Malmö) – UKS (Oslo) – rum46 (Århus) and supported by Nordic Culture Point.

Metod is a series of lectures that focuses on working methods within the field of contemporary art- and culture.