Cultural History of the Avant-Garde in the Nordic Countries Since 1975

Benedikt Hjartarson is Professor of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Iceland. He has published a number of articles, edited volumes and books on the European avant-garde. He is editor-in-chief of Brill’s Journal of Avant-Garde Studies.Camilla Skovbjerg Paldam is associate professor of Art History at Aarhus University. She has published a monograph on Surrealist collage and articles on art, literature, gender studies and feminism.Laura Luise Schultz is associate professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Copenhagen. She has published articles and monographs on Gertrude Stein, theatre and performance and is an editor of the theatre journal Peripeti.Tania Ørum is professor emerita at the University of Copenhagen. She has published monographs and articles on modernism and avant-garde and is General editor of the volumes of A Cultural History of the Avant-Garde in the Nordic Countries, a subseries of Avant-Garde Critical Studies (Brill).

“A tour-de-force through 20th-century Nordic avant-garde and cultural history."[...]"[This] is a very focused volume, which, with the introduction and introductions to each individual section, educationally takes the reader by the hand through the various avant-garde activities documented. Add to this the fact that each individual article is well written, highly interesting and thought-provoking, and that each should lead to further study at various university levels (many deserving of their own PhD theses). [...] The editorial tour-de-force through 20th-century Nordic cultural history has also provided new perspectives on the second neo-avant-garde wave that cancels the dichotomy between center and periphery; instead it is shown that [...] the Nordic countries show power to constitute such centers in international cultural history.”-Per Bäckström, Edda, Volume 110, Issue 1, pp 62–66, 6 March 2023.“En tour-de-force genom 1900-talets nordiska avantgarde- och kulturhistoria."[...]"[Detta] är en mycket fokuserad volym, som med introduktionen och inledningar till varje enskild sektion, på ett pedagogiskt vis för läsaren vid handen genom de olika avantgardeaktiviteter som dokumenteras. Lägger man till detta att varje enskild artikel är välskriven, högst intressant och tankeväckande, och att var och en borde leda till vidare studier på olika universitetsnivåer (mycket förtjänar egna doktorsavhandlingar). [...] Redaktionens tour-de-force genom 1900-talets nordiska kulturhistoria har dessutom gett nya perspektiv på den andra neoavantgardevåg som upphäver dikotomin mellan centrum och periferi; istället visas att [...] de nordiska länderna uppvisar kraft att utgöra sådana centrum i den internationella kulturhistorien.”-Per Bäckström, Edda, Volume 110, Issue 1, pp 62–66, 6 March 2023.

• PrefaceContributorsThe Long Avant-Garde Tradition – Restaging, Resisting, RenewingTania Ørum and Laura Luise SchultzSection 1: Paradigmatic Cases Introduction to Section 1Benedikt HjartarsonAppropriating the Past to Examine the Present – On Matias Faldbakken as Media ArtistAnders Skare MalvikMagma and Persona – Material Generativity in the Work of Björk GuðmundsdóttirHolger SchulzeDOGMA 95 and The Idiots – A Renewal of Avant-Garde Realism in FilmBodil Marie Stavning ThomsenFeminist Avant-Garde Film of the 1970s as Gender Politics – The Example of Tornerose, by Jytte Rex and Kirsten JustesenCamilla Skovbjerg PaldamSuch Stuff as We Are Made of – Kirsten Dehlholm, Billedstofteater and Hotel Pro FormaLaura Luise Schultz“An American Poet Only Writing in Finnish” – Leevi Lehto’s Seminal Role in Contemporary Finnish PoetryAnna Helle and Martin Glaz SerupSection 2: The Promises of Technology Introduction to Section 2Camilla Skovbjerg PaldamThe Avant-Garde and the Computer Industry – Art and Technology Collaborations at Datasaab and IBM Sweden from the late 1960s to the 1990sAnna OrrghenMiracle Machines – The Creative and Democratic Promise of the Photocopier: Danish Xerography 1979–1995 in an Avant-Garde PerspectiveLise Skytte JakobsenAvant-Garde Anomalies and Transnational Trajectories – The Place and Time of Gunvor Nelson’s Collage Films of the 1980sJohn SundholmArt for Aliens – On Goodiepal’s Xenophile PosthumanismJacob WambergErkki Kurenniemi – Life Is an AlgorithmLars Bang LarsenLife in a Code – Mikael Brygger’s “NASDAQ 30.5.2010” as Found PoetryMiikka LaihinenSection 3: The Performative TurnIntroduction to Section 3Laura Luise SchultzShe Splits Phallic Cucumbers with a Knife – The Norwegian Vienna Activist that Art History ForgotSusanne Christensen“Don’t Panic. Black, No Sugar is a New Way of Life!” – An Icelandic Street Theatre between Carnival and DisturbanceMagnús Þór ÞorbergssonTwo Different Perspectives on the Avant-Garde in Finnish Dance in the 1980s – Reijo Kela and Sanna KekäläinenAino KukkonenHilarious Imperialists – Baktruppen’s Bad Family Photos from the World TourCecilie Ullerup SchmidtJessie Kleemann between Orsoq and TurpentineDavid Winfield NormanHumour as an Avant-Garde Strategy in Three Generations of Feminist Art: Kirsten Justesen, Hanne Nielsen & Birgit Johnsen and Maja Malou LyseCamilla Skovbjerg PaldamPrecarious Fiction and Precarious Spectatorship – The Artistic Practice of SIGNA as Theatrical Avant-GardeThomas Rosendal NielsenSection 4: Intervention and Institutional CritiqueIntroduction to Section 4Laura Luise SchultzThe Skinnebach Effect – Towards a Poetic Institutional CritiqueMathies G. AarhusThe Stunt Poets – A Literary Avant-Garde in the Neo-Liberal Age of Mass MediaWenche LarsenWe Are a Song the Band Doesn’t Play – Systematic Systemic Critique in Contemporary Swedish PoetryElisabeth FriisThe Sámi Museum in Karasjok – A Story of ResistanceHanna Horsberg HansenS.L.Á.T.U.R. – The Obtrusive Composers’ CollectiveMargrét Elísabet ÓlafsdóttirThe Guerrilla Paradigm or “Feminist-Avant-Garde” – Towards an Alternative Feminist CanonÆsa SigurjónsdóttirSection 5: VenuesIntroduction to Section 5Benedikt HjartarsonJ.O. Mallander and the Nordic Neo-Avant-GardeSami SjöbergWas ist der Fall? What is the Case? Mr. Klein’s Last Moments (P)reconstructed by MailPeter van der MeijdenToward a Kinetic Icelandic Culture – Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, Suðurgata 7 and Experimental Film in IcelandBenedikt HjartarsonLook Back, Dig Out, Mix Up, Think Forward – The Archival Activism of OEIThomas Hvid KromannThe Bergensbrag Generation – The Rise of Independent Literary Platforms in Norway, 2000–2005Susanne ChristensenInvestigative Infrastructures – Nordic Small Presses of the Twenty-First CenturyAna StanićevićLocality and Literary Intervention – Ida Börjel’s SkåneradioMarianne ØlholmDanish Children’s and Youth Television from an Avant-Garde PerspectiveChrista Lykke ChristensenThe Ultima Festival in Oslo – Institutionalising the Avant-Garde?Astrid KvalbeinSection 6: SubculturesIntroduction to Section 6Laura Luise SchultzThe Copenhagen Punk Years – Art with No Future?Marie Arleth SkovThe Performance Group Værst’s Nine Performance Videos for Sort Sol’s Album Flow My FiretearMagnus KaslovBeyond the Borders – Elgaland-Vargaland and the Association for Temporary ArtHåkan NilssonThe Happy Antagonist – Pasi “Sleeping” Myllymäki’s Underground Super-8 FilmsTytti RantanenImmigrant Film Co-Operatives in Sweden – The Most Typical Avant-GardeLars Gustaf Andersson and John SundholmSpecialists in Revolt – The Surrealist Group of StockholmKristoffer Noheden “To Be Fully Subconscious” – On the Medúsa GroupÚlfhildur DagsdóttirHome to Hell – Tóroddur PoulsenKinna PoulsenA “Cow-Napping” in Context: From the Scribble Board to Zero Tolerance – (Sub)Cultural Interventions in the Public Realms of Stockholm, 1968–2004Jacob Kimvall“… because enmity and admiration go hand in hand” – Guy Maddin’s Tales from the Gimli HospitalKjartan Már ÓmarssonSection 7: Postmodernism and Re-EnactmentsIntroduction to Section 7Camilla Skovbjerg PaldamPostmodern Avant-Garde in Theory and in Poetry in Finland at the End of the Twentieth CenturyHarri VeivoAvant-Garde vs. “Avant-Garde” – Danish Artists of the 1980s as Successors to and Rebels against the 1960s Avant-GardeKamma Overgaard HansenTraces of Avant-Garde Strategies in Danish Poetry of the 1980sMarianne ØlholmCecilie Løveid – Postmodern Recycling of the Avant-GardeWenche LarsenFrench Feminist Theory and Surrealism in Karin Moe’s Kjønnskrift (Sextext)Gerd Karin Omdal“New. Fantastic. Different” – Mariaana Jäntti’s Amorfiaana (1986) and Monika Fagerholm’s Diva (1998) as Finnish Feminist Avant-Garde Prose FictionKaisa KurikkaThe Arctic Mongrel – Pia Arke’s Ethno-Aesthetics as Post-Colonial Avant-GardismMette SandbyeSection 8: The End of the Avant-Garde?Introduction to Section 8Tania ØrumSuperflex and the End of ArtSolveig GadeA BIGamist Bricoleur – The Postmodern Avant-Gardism of Bjarke IngelsKasper LægringAvant-Garde Design in Denmark – Four Cases Concerning FurniturePeter Brix SøndergaardAvant-Garde and Post-Colonial? – How to Square the Circle in a Nordic Country with a Colonial PastAnne Ring PetersenConstructing an Avant-Garde Canon in the Twenty-First Century – On the Icelandic Poetry Group NýhilBenedikt HjartarsonPrecarious Life – Nielsen’s Search for a Life beyond IdentityLaura Luise SchultzA Contemporary Avant-Garde in the Nordic Countries? Subversion or SubventionMikkel Bolt RasmussenIndex