My Via Dolorosa from (Impotent) Institutional Critique to the Founding of My Own Institution, the Norwegian Opra, with the Gradual Construction of the Followers of Ø Opra-Dorf on a Meadow in the Swedish Forest, Thereby (Maybe) Saving the Autonomy of Art

The chapter details how Reinholdtsen’s own fanatical pursuit of ultimate artistic autonomy and control of the means of production have led him to founding his own artist institution, The Norwegian Opra. Weaving together Broodthaers’ affirmative critique of the museum with the aspirations of Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen, he makes the case for the musical pursuit of a freely interdisciplinary compositional engagement with musical ‘material’, casting off historical cruft where it does not suit. Reinholdtsen points to our global institutional instability to underscore the need for musical artists to reaffirm their importance in society in a positive light, while never compromising their artistic expression.