The Quantum Police Take Over Stockholm

No amount of snow or cold could keep Quantum Police devotees away from coming to the unique surrounding of Dktus to experience music, action and grilled hot dogs roasting over burning whodunit novels.

Below you can find images from the event as well as a video of the performance by Per Huttner and musician/DJ Jean-Louis Huhta.

A Trip to Denmark

22 – 23 October

It was a whirlwind two days during a curatorial research trip to explore Copenhagen's art scene. My trip was made in order to explore possible ways that Vision Forum can expand and welcome its network to include other Nordic countries.

It was an exhilarating experience to cross the water into a country so close to Sweden, yet so different in its approach to art. This observation could be dependent on the artists I met and whose works I saw, but truly there was a different tone that I haven't quite formulated into words just yet. So for now I share with you my journey and introduce the people and art I had the opportunity to meet and see.

Despite the fact that the train from Stockholm to Copenhagen was an hour late, I managed to track down the studios of the first two groups on my list which were both fortunately located in the same area of the Old Carlsberg brewing factory. First up was a collective of four artists who call themselves AKassen; Christian Bretton-Meyer, Morten Steen Hebsgaard, Søren Petersen and Tommy Petersen.

Individually, their backgrounds consist of sculpture, photography and painting, but together their work is about space and to "puncture architecture". Whether it relates to altering the inside of a white cube or outside of art's context within a community's public area, their work is narrative and at times humorous. (Check out Concrete Floor and Lamp Post). Their works are always unique and specific to the space or event they are invited to exhibit at.

The one signature that binds their style together is that what they create is always subtle and challenging to the viewer's experience of art. There is no obvious object on a pedestal, instead one must actually participate as if they are on a treasure hunt to find and see a work created by AKassen. I experienced this first-hand when I went to the exhibition "Make Yourself At Home" at Kunsthal Charlottenborg. I walked into a large room of the exhibition space and saw two statues by Philip Aguirre y Otegui, some random glass window panes stacked on the floor in the corner and a large installation by Pascal Marthine Tayou. AKassen was in this room too as the wall label with their name on it told me, but at first I couldn't figure out what or where their work was! It wasn't until I looked up and saw the large, empty space in the ceiling where windows should have been that the light bulb went off in my head. This exhibition space has truly been punctured by AKassen.

After meeting with AKassen, I ran up a couple flights of stairs to have a short meeting with the artist duo Sixten Kai Nielsen and Martin Rosengaard who founded Wooloo.org in collaboration with programmer Russell Ratshin. They function both as artists working on projects such as the ongoing democratic project known as New Life Copenhagen, and as managers of the virtual platform of Wooloo.org which is an extensive web site for art practitioners to advertise information about works, open calls, exhibitions and other events taking place worldwide. I really enjoyed Rosengaard's and Nielsen's confidence and enthusiasm and who knows—maybe they will collaborate with Vision Forum in the near future.

The painter Mie Morkenberg was on my list of artists I wanted to meet, however she was out of town during my time in Copenhagen. I was particularly curious about her work for their narrative, dream-like references which is something of a personal interest. I was able to see a new mural exhibited at "Make Yourself At Home" and other paintings at Politikens Hus. Her paintings depict a scene from a room in a house and have a reference to the old-fashioned, yet are layered with sinister sensations of danger or harm like a nightmare.



The final artist that I met was the sculptor Henrik Menné, whom I should add is an engineering genius despite the fact he never studied this area as a profession. All of his sculptures are large scale, a mechanical creation that usually take in a specific material such as glue or wax and then reprocesses and emits it out into another ephemeral sculpture creation. His work captures notions of process, alteration and time that are visually stunning and engaging.

The best way to describe his work is through experience and photographs, which you can see on his gallery's site: Galleri Tom Christoffersen.

The Show Must Come Down

"The Places Where I Live" by Oana Camilleri.
Dual videos visible from the outside of the Romanian Culture Institute.


"Neither Three Nor Four" by Yan Jun.
Sound installation within an antique elevator of the institute's building.


"Day Dreams II" by Zhifei Yang.
Live performance in Stockholm on April 24, 2010.
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Yesterday, May 16th, was the last day of the group exhibition Simultaneity, uniting the works of Oana Camilleri, Yan Jun and Zhifei Yang. On reflection, the project was a tremendous accomplishment in networking and long distance communication between the artists and myself as well as the other institutions like the Romanian Culture Institute of Stockholm and Platform China in Beijing, who both played a supporting role in making the event a reality.

After looking through my project notes from the past year, I was surprised to realize that several questions I had posed at the beginning were in the end, answered: What are some of the ways one could exhibit experiences of simultaneity through contemporary mediums? Will this be an exhibition that occurs twice? Same time/different places? Could it occur in a public space and a virtual space at the same time? I think the combination of Jun's soundscapes, Zhifei's performance/video and Oana's videos beautifully articulated and enabled expressions of simultaneity to exist and be experienced by others. There was an overlapping presentation of the works, allowing different elements to occur at the same time both through the Internet where Zhifei's video was placed and in the public exhibition space of Platform China, who hosted the same soundworks created by Jun for the exhibition in Stockholm.

Today, as I packed up the final equipment from the Romanian Culture Institute's space, I thought how wonderful it has been to bring together talented people and the other various elements involved in this experience of exhibition making. It's really hard to pack it all away, but there is a glimmer of optimism that maybe, just maybe simultaneity can be something created and exhibited again.

An Exhibition in the Making

I just wanted to write to update everyone on the exhibition I've been working on these past months. The Romanian Culture Institute of Stockholm has welcomed me to curate the group exhibition "Simultaneity-An Infinite Experience" (current working title). It will feature Vision Forum artists Oana Camilleri, Yan Jun and Zhifei Yang.
The exhibition will also be part of a larger cultural event taking place for the first time in Stockholm called 'God Natt Stockholm' on Saturday April 24th.
The exhibition will include "The Places Where I Live," a dual-video projection by Oana Camilleri; "Both One and Two" and "Neither Three nor Four," which are two sound works created by Yan Jun and finally, Zhifei Yang will be on site to dream on her large, over-sized pillow.
I will keep posting updates as the exhibition progresses and takes on more definate details.