Curating Europes' Futures Ásmundur Ásmundsson

Curating Europes’ Futures explores in discussion contemporary curatorial and artistic practices that have critically addressed processes of socio-economic restructuring, identity politics, gender dynamics, and cultural governance within 'post-bloc' Europe.

Ásmundur Ásmundsson - who works curatorially with fellow artist Hannes Lárusson and anthropologist Tinna Grétarsdóttir - explores their multi-sited exhibition KODDU (Nýló-Living Art Museum/ Alliance House, Reykjavik, Iceland, 2011).

Translating as 'Come Here', KODDU refers to the nation-branding campaign 'Inspired by Iceland', in which they sought to open up in debate the changes in Iceland since the 1990s and their consequences; not just the years of prosperity and the crash but also the politics of culture, freedom of speech, aesthetics and the progression of art itself.

KODDU posed questions for how new forms of cultural policy action drew on reinvented myths of national exceptionalism, utilising artists as agents for spicing up Iceland’s idiosyncrasies to promote its international standing. In this interplay between the arts, the academy, the state and market, KODDU contested the exoticism that Icelandic originality and entrepreneurship are not only comparable to the forces of nature, but can also be traced back to nature itself, rooted in the natural world and finding expression in the individual Icelander and their actions; a distinction that asserts the linkage of Iceland=Nature=Creativity=Art

Curating Europes’ Futures brings together Creative Futures Institute (University of the West of Scotland), The Glasgow School of Art, as well as the practitioner-research networks of Variant, Framework and Mother Tongue, hosted by CCA.

www.curatingeuropesfutures.net