Talk

New Music Critiques Neoliberalism: Arts Funding and Fake Feces in Norway

The reception history of Norwegian composer Trond Reinholdtsen’s publicly funded, music-theatrical piano concerto Theory of the Subject (2016; Theory) shows an instance of how the artistic outcomes of a society choosing to free artists economically can conflict with a neoliberal governing rationality that seeks to economize everything.

Blending elements of concerto, performance art, art theory, art installation, live video, and political messaging, Theory levels an institutional critique, not so much at the institutions of New Music in which the artwork is positioned, but at the world which creates the conditions for the failures of these institutions. Theory’s theatrical narrative is the story of New Music piano soloist Ellen Ugelvik’s struggle (and failure) to play truly new and socially transformative music within a neoliberal world.

Through its ridicule by the right-leaning, Norwegian Facebook group “Sløseriombudsmannen” and its inclusion in Morten Traavik’s theater work Sløserikommisjonen (2021), Theory helped bring Norway into ongoing polarizing (though important) debates about the status and role of public art in Norwegian society. Theory expanded the typical political scope of New Music, exemplifying the ability of public art to be a powerful, self-reflective tool within a society.