• Work, work:
  Staging dislocation in artistic
  and non artistic labour

Radio broadcast Mother, Dear Mother (transcript)

Someone had recognized the sculpture.
Like a drill it had moved toward the torso.
The breakthrough.
Looking through the art had been insisted on.
It wasn’t for sure that that was the main point, even at the time when the lions had been shaped a few decades before this breakthrough…
The emotional breakthrough.
And on the back side only a hole. A peephole. Forces that had sought safety in the establishment.

The circulation of punctuality in regard to public sphere

Art that was emotive
Took into account that people were human and had emotions.
Otherwise the strategy quickly became passive, incomplete, and instrumental.

Boycotted the ministry
These were changes that experience suggested would stir interest and mobilize people.

Theoretical reflections on what kind of mandate art projects have –
when they encounter resistance?
Often it was not the change in itself, or the result of the change, that led to people expressing resistance.

Kicked the problem further down the road
Recognized, responded to, and managed the emotional swings in the wake of change.

Controversial art remained on the walls in the Government Quarter
Our feelings were apprehensive, and we felt a sense of uncertainty and ambivalence.

Fortunately, art was power
If the new goals had been congruent with how people thought they ought to be, people’s attitudes would have been more positive.

The disquiet in society would show
Anger was linked to feeling offended, and this led to resistance.

Upset about the art controversy
Mixed experiences gradually became either predominantly positive or predominantly negative.

Art in a public vacuum
The emotions led us to mobilizing resources.

Art in the public space was only as free as it was allowed to be
Presented with a clear vision of the future that made one’s personal inconveniences acceptable.

Instructive power of imagination

Change became improve. Privatization became diversity. Permanent position became new job. Individuals or citizens became people. Segregation became alienation. Weakening became softening.
Private became free.
Cuts became alleviations.
The creative mind defused.

Like a heading and not an archive

Removed art that created anxiety, the artist was “deeply shocked”
Resistance based on fear and anxiety, but most of the resistance was based on rational contemplation.

This picture reminded the ministry’s employees too much of 22 July
People were disinclined to experience the emotional turbulence that the process of change entailed for them personally.

The art remained on the walls until Christmas
Tensions rose, and the experience was a mix of expectation and fear.

Who defined what was acceptable art?
There was little control in the initial stage. The consequences were not yet clear.

Removed art that created anxiety
Emotional intensity corresponded directly with the perceived importance of what had happened.

Wanted to educate ministry employees to interpret art
The lack of feeling in control increased the sense of uncertainty but heightened the degree of emotional alert.

Art should have remained in the R6 Building
An intrinsic urge to reciprocate if we received something valuable.

The third picture was moved
A phase characterized by apathy and indifference.

There was nothing to argue about here
Another phase characterized by positive resistance.

Called Norway the Third World of culture
The final phase characterized by active and ultimately aggressive resistance.

I couldn’t take responsibility for others’ associations
Changes at work represent a major intervention in a person’s life. A number of stable factors were thus under threat.

(song)

After many years away from home he’s finally arrived back
For he could not forget his childhood years and his home
He has many cherished memories about the happiness she gave him But the only thing he finds now is an old, neglected grave

Mother, dear mother, can you hear me now? Take these flowers I’ve brought In my mind’s eye I see you still, just as you once were

Always so tender and so loving – no, there was no one like you, mother dear I want to thank you, you’ve deserved it, but I’ve arrived too late

Mother, dear mother, can you hear me now? Take these flowers I’ve brought In my mind’s eye I see you still, just as you once were

Always so tender and so loving – no, there was no one like you, mother dear I want to thank you, you’ve deserved it, but I’ve arrived too late

Description:

20 Pioneer figures in bronze, packed in cardboard boxes, on loan from the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions.
The casting mould of the same miniature statue, with auxiliary parts.
A 25 cm-high copy of the statue at Youngsbakken.
Action requires space; descriptions of what people have done
The miniature statue is a service decoration bestowed upon individuals
after at least twenty-five years of service.
A salute to outstanding effort in the trade union movement

Screen 1.
Artist Showing Artist in collaboration with Kunstnernes Hus and Kuba Szreder, 11 January, 14:00. Recording from the intervention.

Screen 2.
Artist Showing Artist in collaboration with Kunstnernes Hus and Stephen Wright, 25 January, 15:00. Recording from the intervention.

Screen 3.
Artist Showing Artist in collaboration with Kunstnernes Hus and Christopher Kulendran Thomas 8 February, 14:00. Recording from the intervention.

Screen 4.
Advance audience, or focus group that was convened in conjunction with this exhibition in order to take a closer look at certain aspects, such as
who we really are when we experience a work of art,
what expectations we have to our own imagination,
and which premises we appropriate when looking at art at an exhibition. Which routines and mechanisms are in effect?
What underlying logic is upheld by the exhibition model?
What is our self-understanding as spectators based upon?

(song; semantic poetry version)
THE DURATION OF ABSENCE COMES TO AN END
JUSTIFIED ORIGIN AND SOURCE
RETROACTIVE EXPERIENCE CHARACTERIZED BY EUPHORIA REDUCTION DISAPPOINTMENT UNCONSCIOUSNESS INDIVIDUALIZATION SYMBOLIC ADDRESS OFFERING
IMAGINARY NOTION RESTORATION
EMOTIONAL DESCRIPTION COMPARATIVE CONFIRMATION
GRATITUDE EVALUATION GUILT
REPETITION TRANSITION RITUAL ACTION
CONSTITUTIVE CONTINUITY CORRESPONDING PAST
ISOLATED QUALITATIVE PROPERTIES IDIOSYNCRASY
DUTIFUL VIRTUE ADMIRABLE CAPITULATION

Art as discursive host – unfinished piece
The sensibility of health service bureaucrats to art

Resistance had several modes of expression, and not all resistance was easy to identify.
A hot-button issue in art politics

On the other hand, those who were dissatisfied with how things were being handled looked forward to change.

The anxiety for art
The ambivalence disappeared because we had begun the process of establishing the meaning of what the changes entailed for us personally.

Removed 22 July artwork from the Government Quarter
Meaning was created because we conducted a new and more thorough evaluation of the consequences.

This was sheer madness
The sense that the new goals deviated from those one identified with created negative attitudes to the new changes.

Selected for the largest art project for the new Government Building
Recognition. A common understanding of the situation created a sense of community and largely a common view of what had to be done further on.

When the bedbug stirred
Pride, guilt, joy, shame, and sorrow were associated with internally experienced causal explanations. Anger and frustration were assigned causalities outside of themselves.

Third picture to the Art Council
The goal of the information was to increase the experience of predictability and control.

A possible solution
Pertained to emotional and so-called political resistance.

Debate: Should it be removed?
The goal was to lighten the negative mood.

Public debate on frescoes in government building
What happened to us emotionally and cognitively?

For outstanding efforts in the field of labour by promoting employment and improved working and living conditions, thereby enabling social equality at an ever higher level.

Helped ensure adequate social protection, improve dialogue in the labour market, develop human resources, and combat social exclusion.

Co-founder and first leader in the organization of fundamental rights in the European Social Charter in 1961 and the Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers in 1989.

Finally, for efforts in Norwegian bargaining rights and the right to collective negotiations where workers and employers or their respective organizations had the right to negotiate and enter into collective agreements and, in the event of conflicting interests, the right to take collective action, including going on strike, to defend their interests.

The anus, someone had mumbled, A starting point
Standpoint, stance, or viewpoint A rose
Like a threshold
Two tunnels meet and form a union Unity and flow
See others see, and be observed yourself Be somehow in it, unseparated

The key to understanding resistance had been to understand it as uncertainty. Resistance could be explored, understood, and faced.

Piled, calculated, stocked, cautious storage of surfaces, weight, refused

Unseemly compromise
A vision that was marketed through both word and deed.

Didn’t rejoice yet
In order for this to happen, there had to be an agreement about what the tasks were and how they should be solved.

Two-step solution for art in the R6 Building
Carrying out work that depended on participation from many people.

Pictures
Accustomed already from childhood to obeying authorities. Adequate information was communicated at the right time.

Petition in support of the art in the R6 Building
The need for adapted information and involvement.

The content of art shall not be subject to political control
Inner turmoil characterized by uncertainty, low self-confidence, and confusion about the consequences.

Mural monumentality
The causal explanations were situational.

Feared that artists became wary
Reacted with denial, anger, and insecurity.

Upset over art controversy
Cheaply won agreement.

Did not know how many people had reacted
It was essential that the involved parties were motivated and had a common understanding that something had to be done about the situation.

A champion of improving the work environment in order to protect workers’ health and safety; working conditions; information and hearing of workers; integration of those who were excluded from the labour market; the work for establishing equal opportunities for women and men in the labour market, and equal treatment in the work place.
Helped put Norway in the driver’s seat concerning rights in conjunction with mass layoffs, equal pay, transfer of ownership, bankruptcy.

For efforts on the European Framework Directive on Safety and Health at Work, as well as requirements to work equipment, safety equipment, written contracts, security and protection for atypical and pregnant employees, and mutual approval of qualifications.

(song)
(She)
After many years away from home he’s finally arrived back
For he could not forget his childhood years and his home
He has many cherished memories about the happiness she gave him But the only thing he finds now is an old, neglected grave
(He)
Mother, dear mother, can you hear me now? Take these flowers I’ve brought In my mind’s eye I see you still, just as you once were
Always so tender and so loving – no, there was no one like you, mother dear I want to thank you, you’ve deserved it, but I’ve arrived too late
(Both)
Mother, dear mother, can you hear me now? Take these flowers I’ve brought In my mind’s eye I see you still, just as you once were
Always so tender and so loving – no, there was no one like you, mother dear I want to thank you, you’ve deserved it, but I’ve arrived too late

Been instrumental in developing many of the directives that are based on European inter-party agreements, such as the right to maternity and paternity leave, equal rights for part-time and temporary employees, protection from sharp objects in hospitals and the health sector, long-distance work, frameworks for lifelong learning and equality.

Helped instigate and set the terms for the work on employees’ social insurance and social protection; protection of employees upon the termination of a contract; representation and collective defence of employees’ and employers’ interests; co-determination; working conditions for citizens from third- party countries with legal residence in the Community; combating social exclusion; modernizing systems of social protection.

A comparison had been made between the planned, the controlled, and the spontaneous.
The guardians of change, on the one hand, which entailed preparatory work and rational deliberation. A reverse image, but characterized by sorrow, fear, anger, and anxiety.
The other side, conversely, was characterized by expectation, joy, confidence, excitement, and childlike surprise.
A certain emotional intensity.
Resistance as reaction and force, as a reply to change.
It wasn’t the first time they heard about the difference between the lions in front of the Parliament and the lions holding guard outside.
This insistence in the game, in contrast with the premises for creating the sculpture itself.
After they had been informed about the design of the animals down there, things had become more serious.
Cross-pressure.
The energy and power inherent in the opposition had been used in a constructive and positive way. Measures that concerned each individual, but that they nonetheless were not emotionally prepared for.

For facilitating and helping develop a number of revised directives, such as protection of minors in the work place; improving the Posting of Workers Directive; the burden of proof in cases related to gender discrimination; mass layoffs; a number of directives regarding working hours in transportation, participation in European companies, and information and consultation in national companies; as well as for being the driving force on the work for equal treatment and the anti-discrimination directives and the Temporary Agency Work Directive.

Worked steadfastly to the very end with preventing work-related stress, preventing violence and bullying at work, and promoting an inclusive work environment.

(loop)