Artist-driven are benchmarks for contemporary art

16.07.17 | News

Visual artist Michael Würtz Overbeck is co-founder of the OK Corral exhibition venue, who were among the nominees for the BKF prize Artist-run Exhibition Center of the Year 2016.

Also in 2017, BKF is awarding the Artist-run Exhibition Places of the Year award. Nominate your favourite by sending an email with 5-10 lines of justification to bkf@bkf.dk before August 15, 2017!

Read more about the criteria, the jury and the awards ceremony at the awarding of the BKF prize Artist-run Exhibition Places of the Year 2017, click here...

The interview with Michael Würtz Overbeck was published for the first time in The trade magazine Billedkunstneren #4 2016:

What role does the self-organized art scene play in the development of art life, as you see it?

The self-organized scene is flourishing like never before. New places are popping up, and older places are closing to re-emerge in new constellations. The artist-run spaces stand as a good counterpoint to the more established and commercially based galleries, art institutions and museums. And one can perhaps talk about the fact that the artist-run/self-organised exhibition spaces within the last eight years have increasingly functioned as a focal point and benchmark for the direction in which contemporary art is moving here and now.

It is also here that you can find some of the strongest evidence of what contemporary art can do. Often quite on par with the galleries and art institutions. At the artist-run exhibition venues, you can get a direct insight into the latest contemporary art from the perspective of the artists. I also see the artist-run scene as a first step for many young artists' careers, where the spaces are in many cases the young artists' first entry into the art scene and first opportunity to exhibit a solo project.

Which artist-run exhibition venues and projects have particularly impressed you in recent years?

Some of the most interesting self-organized places currently are what you can call the micro-institutions. Eg. Camp / Center for Art on Migration Politics, which specializes in the field between art and
migration.

Og X and Beyond, which centers around the research on catastrophe theory. Places that figure as more specialized exhibition venues and that challenge the institutional structures and exhibition formats. Interesting because they contain everything that structurally characterizes an art gallery, such as
exhibitions, lectures, screenings and research.

Of other self-organized places I will mention Skovsnogen Deep Forrest Art Land, there is no exhibition space defined by four walls. It is an art park for contemporary art located in a forest in West Jutland, where there is an interesting meeting between the art and the works' 'misplacement' in nature. The works have in many cases been moved from their original context after serving their original purpose, in order to eventually
decay and become one with nature.

Which artist-run exhibition venues and projects have you participated in yourself?

I am a co-founder and curating member of OK corral – a nonprofit artist-run exhibition space and studio community of the same name. After previously being housed in Carlsberg Byen, OK Corral has re-emerged in Frederiksberg in a new constellation consisting of Johannes Sivertsen, Sofie Hertz, Hannah Skarsholm,
Pelle Møller Schiødt, Berit Dröse and myself.

My personal motive for starting the OK Corral as an exhibition venue was a need to create a networked environment around a space that could function as a collegial platform. A platform where we could create some professional opportunities for other artists and curators, who could then freely contribute to the art scene with critical approaches, experiments and new ways of showing visual culture. Or simply just to give the exhibitor the opportunity to follow his passion and realize the wild, geeky and experimental ideas he is passionate about, without being held back by commercial or curatorial constraints. A space where we could build new and perhaps better opportunities for artists and curators, where there could be room to experiment with exhibition forms and the constant formulation of contemporary art.

From the start, we have laid a line where we have focused on giving the artists and curators space and space for the experiment and the opportunity to unfold their project, give them the keys to the OK Corral, and then see what happens. We have not wanted to impose other curatorial frameworks on the artists and curators. To a large extent, this is still a line we work from.

The portrait at the top of Michael Würtz Overbeck was taken by Anders Sune Berg.

Read more articles and interviews with artists, researchers and art professionals in the theme issue about the self-organized exhibition scene in Fagbladet Biledkunstneren, click here...