There Is No Alternative

In the 1980s Margaret Thatcher made the notorious statement 'There is no alternative' (TINA), which is often paired with another famous declaration by the former British Prime Minister 'There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families'. Following the collapse of communism TINA has become something of a slogan, embodying the viewpoint that the only viable economic and political system is global free market capitalism, coupled with the renewal of the creed of individualism. The aim of the project is to challenge the clearly hegemonic intent of Thatcher's statement 'TINA' and examine the contradictory relationship between capitalism and the idea of liberty from a historical perspective.

The expansion of the role of finance capital in the global economy in the last decade, alongside the deregulation of the financial markets, has led to a renewed importance of the financial services industry. Working in a wide range of media, from performance and film to text and drawing, the artists in the exhibition also address questions of how the recent financialisation of the global economy and the narratives produced through this process change our world; from the everyday questions of what kind of social relations we are able to imagine to the realm of cultural production and our understanding of history.

Based in the Germany, Iceland, Romania, Sweden and UK the artists in the exhibition will explore these effects from their differing vantage points. There is no alternative (TINA) is a project initiated by Olivia Plender that adopts the idea of exhibition making as a form of research. The project first opened at the Drawing Room, London and it also involves seminars and performances, the outcomes of which will eventually find their way into a publication.

Artists: Petra Bauer, Pablo Bronstein, Melanie Gilligan, Anja Kirschner & David Panos, Ciprian Muresan, Olivia Plender, Katya Sander, Michael Stevenson, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor och Unnar Örn

Curator: Olivia Plender in collaboration with Kim Einarsson

Programme:

Saturday 10 April at Konsthall C, Performance by Petra Bauer

Thursday 15 April at the Romanian Cultural Institute of Stockholm, Artist talk by Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor

Sunday 16 May at Konsthall C, Performance by Katya Sander

There Is No Alternative
Kuratoren: Olivia Plender, Kim Einarsson

Künstler: Petra Bauer, Pablo Bronstein, Melanie Gilligan, Anja Kirschner, Ciprian Muresan, Unnar Örn, David Panos, Olivia Plender, Katya Sander, Michael Stevenson, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor

Stationen:
Romanian Cultural Institute of Stockholm
Konsthall C, Stockholm