Vision Forum (art organisation) explained

Vision Forum is an organisation that carries out research in contemporary art and organises events that transgresses the boundaries between performance, exhibition, workshops and education. It grew from a series of events organised by Curatorial Mutiny in collaboration with KSM[1] at Campus Norrköping, Linköpings Universitet[2] in Sweden 2005–2007. Vision Forum took its present form in 2008. It does not have a physical location or a program, but responds to the needs of the group of artists, curators and researchers that are part of the network at any given moment. Its members are mostly based in Europe and have carried out projects all over the continent, in North America, Australia and Asia. In 2009, neuroscientist Stephen Whitmarsh joined the group, showing that the organisation can host members outside of the artistic community. A strategy that has been developed further in subsequent years.[3]

Workshops and Public Presentations

In 2008–09, Vision Forum organised two major projects. (Anti)Realism[4] brought together young contemporary visual artists based in Sweden, China, Great Britain, the Netherlands and France.[5] The first part of the project was a practical workshop that took place in Guangzhou, China, in September 2008. The European participants developed collaborative projects with their Chinese peers that focused on time-based art.

”The title and the conceptual framework of the workshop (Anti)Realism was created to look into the differences and similarities of how we look at reality (both as individuals and as members of different cultures) and how that can be used to further our understanding and appreciation of life. The project allowed the participants to both understand differences between European cultures, as well as how these differ from Chinese contemporary art and life.”[6]

The results of the workshop were presented to the public at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art and a second were later developed into an exhibition which was shown at Verkstad in Sweden, Ècole Régional de Beaux Arts de Besaçon in France and at Adele C in Italy.[7] Parallel to (Anti)Realism Vision Forum created four workshops in Rome,[8] Zürich,[9] Amsterdam,[10] and Stockholm.[11] These involved a completely different group of artists and curators from (Anti)Realism and focused on architecture, artistic production, curation and presentation respectively.

The Development of Nodes

In 2009–10, Vision Forum focused on four major projects or “nodes”. They were each made up of a number of artists and curators who, like the Vision Forum workshops in 2008-09 met regularly. The nodes were held together by all doing research on time and temporality in different ways. “If you don’t want God, you’d better have a multiverse” was curated and developed by in Rome.[8] The project was focused on workshops in Rome, Skopje and Paris. At the last meeting, the participants reformulated themselves into “OuUnPo” (Workshop for Alternative Universes), inspired by French literary group Oulipo. The participants organised a public event at MACRO in Rome and at Tate Britain in London[12] in spring 2010 under the new name. Ouunpo has since then carried out events in Porto, Athens, Belgrade, Amsterdam-Nijmegen, Stockholm-Norrköping[13] in collaboration with art and science institutions like Deste Foundation and Max Planck Institute. Australian artist duo A Constructed World started “Speech and What Archive?” which continued its activities in 2010–13.[14] The node focused on alternative forms of communication and organised events in Paris, Nice, San Francisco and Melbourne working with art institutions like Villa Arson and CCA. Curator Claire Louise Staunton carried out research which later lead to the creation of the temporary gallery “Inheritance Shenzhen”[15] in the Chinese region of Guangdong.[16] This project was developed in Milton Keynes in 2011 with a large exhibition, seminar and publication.[17] They then travelled to Chandigar and as an outcome of this research the node presented an exhibition about British architect Jane Drew and the artistic work that flourished around her at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London in 2014.

The Invisible Generation

See main article: The Invisible Generation.

The fourth major project realized in 2009-10 was The Invisible Generation.[18] It was conceived by artist Per Hüttner and Curator Daniele Balit and created new meeting places between art and its audiences. A great number of projects were realized in Melbourne, Shenzhen, Beijing and Kyiv in 2009–2010. For each city the program and artist list was totally new. No, project was ever repeated twice. The project always allowed the audience to meet art in new and unexpected situations and played with or confused the audiences’ expectations about what art is, where it normally appears and what shape it should take. In the introduction to the project in the catalogue Gerrie van Noord writes:

“The Invisible Generation is a collection of artistic interventions that spread virally across the continents of our globe. It used the artistic and curatorial network of Vision Forum as a platform to multiply and make its way into the perception of people in unexpected spaces of selected cities around the world. The project takes its starting point in performative traditions, but focuses on practices and events that cross over into other time-based activities such as sound, film, video, literature, theatre and workshops and draws inspiration from other related fields such as journalism, fashion and design, but also from those further removed like mathematics and physics”[19]

Redefining Communication

Since September 2011 Vision Forum organizes two international workshops a year in Östergötland in Sweden. These bring together members of the different international nodes (in 2012 Vision Forum ran 10 nodes) and interact with local institutions and art organizations. This means that the research carried out in the individual nodes have started cross referencing and exchanging methodology between each other. Vision Forum, through its structure, develops modes of communication and knowledge production that make use of current technology. The nodes of the network also allow a deeper dialogue with their audiences that, in their turn, are inscribed into in numerous interconnected networks.[20] It has become increasingly clear that the network focuses on research about how art uses, retains, distributes and develops knowledge along with how this can be fed back into the everyday lives of art's audience.[21] This ties in with Vision Forum's founder Per Hüttner's work that can be exemplified by projects like I am a Curator”,[22] Democracy and Desire[23] and (In)Visible Dialogues and have allowed them to participate in collective work in the Caribbean and in biennials in Brazil.[24] The methodology builds on Deleuzian ideas about knowledge and creativity and has been developed in Vision Forum’s nodes and networks, particularly in OuUnPo. This idea of exchange is based on co-producing knowledge with the collaborating institutions and audiences, rather than a top down knowledge distribution. The strategy that they call "collapsing the global with the local" is currently being developed by the network in collaboration with Global Art and the Museum at ZKM in Karlsruhe.[25]

Residency and Interdisciplinary Activities

In 2011 Vision Forum started publishing books and catalogues regularly to document its activities.[26] The organisation also started to produce experimental films in a separate node called Vision Forum Film. Two films were in Production in 2012: "Effektivia" directed by Jesper Frilund and Marcus Fernstad and "The River" by Sino-Swedish director Ting Ting Yang (杨婷婷).[27] In June 2013 Vision Forum opened an international residency program called "Norrköping Air.[28] " The program was initiated in collaboration with KSM at Linköpings universitet, IASPIS and offers three artists the opportunity to work in parallel Sweden for 3 months during the Swedish summer months. The project focuses on experimental art in public spaces, drawing inspiration from the Invisible Generation and similar projects and was developed in close dialogue with the centenary of Norrköping Art Museum.[29]

Selected Workshops

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

Selected exhibitions, performances and projects

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2005

Publications

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.isak.liu.se/ksm KSM website (in Swedish)
  2. Web site: Linköpings universitet. liu.se.
  3. Time Capsules and Conditions of Now, Edited by Fatos Ustek, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, UK and Vision Forum 2012, .
  4. Web site: Vision Forum - (anti)realism. www.visionforum.eu.
  5. Youth, Youth, Youth, p. 120-121, Catalogue Produced by Huang Xiaopeng, Guangzhou At Academy, Guangzhou, China, 2008
  6. (Anti)Realism, Numéro 1, D'Ailleurs, Cold Mountain, France
  7. Youth, Youth, Youth, p. 87, Catalogue Produced by Huang Xiaopeng, Guangzhou At Academy, Guangzhou, China, 2008
  8. Web site: Vision Forum - Rome. www.visionforum.eu.
  9. Curatorial workshop in Zürich organised by White Space and other local players.http://www.visionforum.eu/zurich.html
  10. Web site: Vision Forum - Amsterdam. www.visionforum.eu.
  11. Web site: Vision Forum - Stockholm. www.visionforum.eu.
  12. Yane Calovski, Obj'ct, Ed. Basak Senova, Ponder Pause Process (a situation), p. 90-97, Zorlu Center Art Collection, Istanbul, Turkey
  13. Music for Works, Takahashi and Miliani, Jacopo Miliani - Do you Believe in Mirages, a+mbookstore edizioni, Milano, 2012. .
  14. Web site: Speech and What Archive. speecharchive.blogspot.com.
  15. Web site: Article in Artforum picks by Robin Peckham.
  16. Web site: Sign in to your account.
  17. Web site: MK Gallery – Learning – Project Space Exhibition . www.mkgallery.org . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120415153843/http://www.mkgallery.org/education/projectspace/community_without_propinquity/ . 2012-04-15.
  18. The Invisible Generation, published by Vision Forum, Stockholm, Sweden, 2010.
  19. Gerrie van Noord, p.8 The Invisible Generation catalogue, published by Vision Forum, Stockholm, Sweden, 2010. .
  20. OuUnPo[RTO], edited by Claudia Squitieri and Samon Takahashi, texts by OuUnPo, designed by Åbäke published by Dent-de-Leone and Vision Forum, 2013.
  21. [The Invisible Generation]
  22. Book: Hüttner , Per . Per Hüttner . Introdictionary . I am a Curator . Föreningen Curatorial Mutiny . . 2005 . Stockholm . 91-631-5132-4 . 2010-09-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110715064259/http://www.perhuttner.com/text/by/IAAC.book.intro.doc . 2011-07-15 . dead.
  23. [Democracy and Desire]
  24. [Lisette Lagnado]
  25. Web site: OuUnPo and Globalisation on Global Art and the Museum website.
  26. Web site: Vision Forum Publications. vfpublications.blogspot.de.
  27. Vision Forum Film, edited by Rudi Heinrichsen, translated by Yan Rong and designed by Erik Månsson. Texts by Rudi Heinrichsen, Per Hüttner, Yang Tingting, Jesper Frilund and Rebecca Catching. published by Vision Forum, 2013. .
  28. David Isaksson, Norrköpings Tidningar, p. B2-3, 20 July 2013
  29. Web site: Norrköping Air. norrkopingair.blogspot.ch.
  30. Web site: Ouunpo.com is for sale | HugeDomains.
  31. Web site: Ouunpo.com is for sale | HugeDomains.
  32. Web site: Volume. vfvolume.blogspot.fr.
  33. Web site: 3rd GB 2013 - Artist List : GHETTO BIENNALE.
  34. Web site: OuUnPo – Japan. ouunpojapan.blogspot.fr.
  35. Web site: Temporality and Dis-Location of Self. temporality-and-dis-location-of-self.blogspot.se.
  36. Web site: ouunpolebanon. ouunpolebanon.blogspot.fr.
  37. Think Again, edited by Rudi Heinrichsen. Designed by Guo Xingling and published with Fei Art Center. Language: English and Chinese. .
  38. Web site: Vision Forum - Ouunpo. https://web.archive.org/web/20120426072329/http://visionforumouunpo.blogspot.com/2011/08/program.html . 2012-04-26 . 2011-08-24 . 2023-12-24.
  39. (In)visible Dialogues, 2011, Edited by Per Hüttner and Elias Arnér. Published by Dent-de-Leone. and
  40. Introduction to Yane Calovsky’s project at Tate Britain which hosted the Vision Forum event. http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/contemporaryartsociety/yanecalovski/default.shtm
  41. Christophe Bruno’s blog with documentation and information about the event.http://cosmolalia.blogspot.com/
  42. Web site: Ouunpo.com is for sale | HugeDomains.
  43. http://www.nobelmuseum.se/en/node/4587 The Nobel Museum web-site
  44. Speech Objects, curated by ACW and Etienne Bernard, edited by Anna Hess and ACW, published by Musée de l’Objet, Blois, France
  45. Time Capsules and Conditions of Now, 1 multifold page and cover, b/w, edited by Fatos Ustek, with contributions by Fatos Ustek, Lisa Skuret, Vanda Playford, Kaz, Ole Hagen and Soledad Garcia. Published by Vision Forum and David Roberts Foundation 2012
  46. SWANewspaper, 16 pages, colour, edited by Anna Hess et al (Speech and What Archive). Published by A Constructed World 2011.
  47. The Quantum Police, with texts by Anne Klontz; Johnny Ross and Willie Hansen (1969) and a short story by Wang Xiao Ping (in Chinese and English). Published by Lambert Gallery and Vision Forum 2011, .
  48. The Invisible Generation, 2011, Published by Curatorial Mutiny and Vision Forum.
  49. The exhibition’s official website, where Vision Forum co-organized Pauline’ Jardin Curnier and Les Vroum’s participation in the project. http://www.palaisdetokyo.com/fo3/low/programme/index.php?page=nav.inc.php&id_eve=2999&session=43
  50. Web site: Simultaneity - in Stockholm and Beijing. Per. Huttner. April 30, 2010.
  51. Web site: Press release and press images.
  52. Web site: OCT当代艺术中心. www.ocat.com.cn.
  53. Web site: iii. Yan Jun : BIRDCAGE. www.birdcagespace.com.
  54. Web site: The Invisible Generation in Melbourne Margaret Lawrence Gallery Melbourne. 1995-2015.undo.net.
  55. Web site: Do not Go Gentle II. www.youtube.com.