Perfusion – Pollution – Pervasion

Jens Hauser & Hege Tapio

Within our highly mediated and technologised environment, challenging art may not be found where we tend to look for it. And we can even not simply look at it. Just like climate change, electrosmog or biological mutation are phenomena that can rarely be grasped at first sight, contemporary aesthetic strategies which address urgent concerns of our times take forms that may not be contained and contemplated in traditionally dedicated space-time situations. The conversion of global interconnectedness induced by the digital era and, at the same time, the increasing consciousness for the concrete (side) effects of our indeed beloved technologies, both at the macro and mirco scale, stimulates cultural practitioners located at this threshold to create art that is pervasive. It permeates unusual spaces and taints various disciplines: from architecture, biotechnology, design and fashion to composition, performance, ecology or communication technology.

Article|08 spreads throughout public and private areas in central Stavanger as well as in the Obrestad and Tungenes lighthouses. Beyond the primacy of the visual trust, the biennale reveals the hidden, vaporizes smells and sounds, favors synesthesia, aestheticises pollution and imagines self-organizing organic architecture for outer space, alternative energy resource management as well as tactical clothing. It stages ephemeral physiologies, imports contradictory climatic conditions and Far East Fiction, makes data flows tangible and human inventiveness glow, or encourages hands-on learning of the life sciences. Between operationality and symbolism, Article|08 condenses abstract occurences into materialized experiences that tie together vision, knowledge and the world of everyday life.

From November 15-30 Article|08 will be presenting a dozen of international art projects, performances and workshops as part of Stavanger's year as the European Capital of Culture. Article|08 provides interstices for «unstable artforms»: we intend to encompass site-specific art which is not yet institutionalised and stabilised by traditional frameworks of production and distribution, art which crosses disciplinary boundaries, which engages unusual contexts and references, or art which is not anchored by permanent static objects. The multiple events establish an open arena for projects focussing on the evolution, ethics, politics and dissemination of technology and science-based illusions and perspectives.

Article|08 will be comprised of far-flung exhibition spaces, pervasive actions, an international conference and a practical "art & biotechnology" workshop. Stay tuned – the definitife program will be released by the beginning of October.