Project Office

Programme:

Levels of Precarity
4 September at 7 pm., Bar Moskus, Trondheim
A conversation about work, art and precarious work with artists Vladan Jeremić, Rena Rädle and Jesper Alvær, moderated by Marius Lervåg Aasprong.

Vladan Jeremić og Rena Rädle are Belgrade-based artists whose projects combine drawing, discussion and documentary video. Their projects include various forms of interventions, public debate and their social dissemination. In their curatorial and artistic practice they research the intersection between contemporary art and politics. Rädle&Jeremić have worked together since 2002, co-authoring video works and projects. Their recent exhibitions include, Between Worlds II, Kraljevic Gallery, Zagreb; Self Made Urbanism Rome, NGBK, Berlin; Places of Memory – Fields of vision, Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki; Moving Forwards, Counting Backwards, MUAC, Mexico City; and The Housing Agenda, Cable Factory Gallery, Helsinki.
www.modukit.com/raedle-jeremic

Jesper Alvær (b. 1973) received his artistic training mainly in Prague, New York, and Kitakyushu. During 2013–16 he is a Research fellow at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts with the project Work, work: Staging dislocation in artistic and non artistic labour, (artistic-research.no/jesper-alvaer-work-work). In addition to showing his art at a number of international exhibitions, Alvær has also participated in numerous study, residence, and research programmes both in Norway and abroad. His most recent exhibitions include Mother, Dear Mother, (Kunstnernes Hus Oslo, 2014), Arbeidstid/Work Time (Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, 2013) as well as several exhibitions held in collaboration with Isabela Grosseova: Competencies (Fotograf Gallery, Prague 2014) Activum (Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo, 2013), Eventos Paralelos (Manifesta 8, Murcia, 2010/11), and an exhibition at Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery, Krakow, 2007.

Marius Lervåg Aasprong (b. 1982) is currently a Ph.D.-candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, at the Institute of Industrial Economics and Technology Management. He has a M.Sc. in Sociology. The main focus of the Ph.D. is changes to contemporary Norwegian Working-life, especially in light of introduction of production systems such as Lean, as well as increasing multinational ownership of Norwegian industry.

 

Screening of the films The Housing Question by Vladan Jeremić and Rena Rädle, and Konkret by Jesper Alvær.
Saturday 6. September, 3 pm.-5 pm., Levanger city Hall, enterance Håkon den Godes gt

The Housing Question, 11′, Rome, 2013 / Vladan Jeremic and Rena Rädle
In order to unmask the models of market-oriented welfare, and the commercialization of public services to the European precarious class who is denied the right to urban living, Rädle & Jeremić point to the perfidious system developed in the city of Rome, where Roma are housed in ghettoized container settlements and monitored by security guards.  The video animation “The Housing Question” incorporates animated drawings of the city of Rome and the speech of three characters:  an elderly woman who survived a concentration camp in Germany and two younger male characters who live in contemporary ghettoized settlements in Rome.

The animation emphasizes the continuity of European racist policies towards Roma,  situating their speech in the familiar historical setting of the city or places in Rome, such as Casilina 700 and 900 where settlements have been demolished and their inhabitants relocated to containers.
www.modukit.com/raedle-jeremic

Concrete– Video (20 min)/ Jesper Alvær
The video Concrete is a result of 42 meetings with day-workers. Alvær hired these workers through the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration (NAV) who are promoting same day, short-term assignments to persons whom are willing to work and determined to do a good job. This piece could be said to deal with the relationship between various types of work, and the respective roles of the artist and the worker as employer and employee. With each individual the day was spent reflecting upon the meeting as labour. Different types of working life experiences and reflections on work and employment in general was discussed, as well as the premise of this particular work situation offered by Alvær. Simple drawings and notes with associations to the questions discussed were kept after each interview. This creates the starting point of this piece. Alvær weaves in and out between poetic reproductions based on the observations and stories by the employees, as well as his own reflections on the making of the artwork and the participation by the employees in the artistic process.

Each sequence ends with a close up of a monochrome piece of paper. According to the artist, this points to the relationship between abstract work and concrete work, an ambivalent relation resulting in the making of this piece. All coloured papers were made on commission. Even though this task to colour paper was similar to for example to paint a wall, a rather common task in this setting, it often led to discussions on the nature of work, and questions regarding the employees right to draw differently and by this affect the result.

(Excerps from work description, Concrete, from the exhibition Living Labor, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, 2013)