EXHIBITION with NORDIC ARTISTS at CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART - TBILISI, GEORGIA

Participating artists: Anders Smebye (NO), Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir & Mark Wilson (IS/UK), Elin Wikström in Collaboration with Denis Romanovski (SE), Eva Koch (DK), Josefina Posch (SE), Lars Laumann (NO), Leslie Johnson (SE), Sasha Huber (FI)

The exhibition was curated by Wato Tsereteli founding director of CCA – Center for Contemporary Art Tbilisi in collaboration with Leslie Johnson & Josefina Posch and produced by Snowball Cultural Productions.

Almost twenty years after the “Nordic Miracle” the North was again at the top of the agenda with the New York Armory Show's 2012 Nordic focus. This was a good opportunity to spread the discussion of “Nordic” through an art exhibition and seminar in the more distant setting of Tbilisi, Georgia. The artists in the exhibition are not all Nordic by birth but have made the north their workplace and home, some are native but live and work in another Nordic country. Much has been discussed in relation to what might or might not be characteristic for artists native to/or working in the Nordic countries and the conclusion almost always seems to be that there actually are not any themes, visual or conceptual to be found. Instead one finds a broad range of contemporary art from those looking toward modernism and earlier, to more inter-­disciplinary practices. Immigration and globalization, changing economies, has opened the perspective of Nordic artists on how to create the career, mainstream or otherwise. Nordic artists also seem to have embraced the ideas of actively participating in every step of their art production from research and creation to self-organization and curatorial work; with a strong sense of commitment to public engagement, rather than assuming a miracle will arrive.

What people call success is only preparation for the next failure.

                                                                               -August Strindberg

This quote illuminates an aspect of the Nordic character that the exhibition and seminar will explore - the industrious, entrepreneurial determination of Nordic artists. The need for continuity through success and failure, but above all to trust the process, proceed with work, develop new strategies, move forward. Another aspect is the integration of the events into the public consciousness, through site-specific work, through the public forum.


The exhibition and seminar is produced by Snowball Cultural Productions in collaboration with CCA – Center for Contemporary Art Tbilisi with the support of Norden - Nordic Culture Fund, The Swedish Arts Council, The Danish Arts Council, FRAME – Visual Art Finland, OCA-Norway and the Swedish Embassy Tbilisi.