“Nordic Outbreak” by Nina Colosi, Tanya Toft

Streaming Museum

Title:

Nordic Outbreak

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Artist Statement:

Streaming Museum is pleased to present at ISEA2013 a special collection from Nordic Outbreak, an exhibition of over 30 moving image artworks by established and emerging contemporary Nordic artists curated for public space. Curated and produced by Nina Colosi and Tanya Toft, the exhibition and accompanying public programs launched in New York City, March 1 to April 6, and are travelling throughout the Nordic region and internationally in 2013-14. Nordic Outbreak will be viewed as large projections and on screens in public spaces, on its website, and at partnering cultural centres. The themes presented in the artworks reflect discussions and issues that have been critical to the Nordic context in the past decade – such as gender equality, decline of the welfare state, nationalism vs. globalism, rural nostalgia, the man/nature relationship, post-crisis transition and existentialism. These issues confront the underpinnings of society in the Nordic region – but they also reflect international realities and conditions in the digital age. Nordic Outbreak opened on March 1st 2013 with a new version of Björk’s Mutual Core video by Andrew Thomas Huang, from her Biophilia series, on view during Times Square’s Midnight Moment, simultaneously displayed across 15 of the largest screens in Times Square. Public programs included a symposium and exhibition at Scandinavia House with Keynote speaker Erkki Huhtamo, Professor of Media History and Theory, University of California Los Angeles, Nordic artists, theorists, and curators; screenings at Big Screen Plaza, Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (“the Gateway to the United Nations),and the Manhattan Bridge Archway, a lecture at New York University on the history of Nordic moving image, and an evening event in the Sky Room at the New Museum. Nordic Outbreak is produced in collaboration with Nordic curators Daniela Arriado, Birta Gudjonsdottir, Kati Kivinen, and Jacob Lillemose; and cultural centres Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Reykjavik Art Museum, Danish Architecture Center, Screen City Festival, Katuaq the Cultural Centre of Greenland, PNEK, AV-Arkki.
Nordic Outbreak is supported by Nordic Culture Fund, Nordic Culture Point, Consulate General of Sweden, Royal Norwegian Consulate General, Consulate General of Finland, Consulate General of Denmark, Consulate General of Iceland, Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Icelandic Art Center, PNEK Production Network for Electronic Art Norway, The Danish Arts Foundation. Bjork In Times Square is a collaboration between Streaming Museum, Times Square Advertising Coalition and Times Square Arts, and MOCAtv for the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.

Nordic artists in the complete exhibition: