The Group Crit

A social experiment spins out of control at an art school in Norway, where the students take part in a role play that uses humour and satirical bites to discuss the political currents in contemporary art – literally.

Contemporary art has become an arena for political debate, and nowhere is this more evident than at the art academies. Norwegian artist Sille Storihle has designed a role-playing game to explore the issues. The rules of the game are clear: The students at the Film and Art School in Kabelvåg were given fictitious characters which they themselves developed further and act out in a group critique of each other’s work. But while the rules are clear, the game itself can easily spin out of control! And it does in ‘The Group Crit’, where the students (who are all in character) don’t hold back from criticising each other’s artworks – and each other in general – so we soon forget the performative framework of the heated debate. The collective experiment challenges not only the students’ self-perception, but also Storihle’s own authority as a director. An important, witty and wild work created with the active participation of the students.