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2008Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art
12.01 - 27.01
Monumento Mori deals with issues related to monumental transformations: death, rebirth and metamorphosis.
Marte Johnsliens two works, Untitled (Pink) and Untitled (Blue) are photographs of eclectic pavillion architecture of Lusaka, Zambia. The pictures are presented as documentation of schizophrenic objects in a grey zome between sculpture and architecture. These objects can be viewed as a type of hybrids (elastic monuments), which has departed from the representation of imperialisms image of ´the other´, ending up as appropriated symbols of independent Zambia, thus ressurected as anti-monmuments; a negation of its former life.
Lina Viste Grønli presents The Conclusion which features Henry David Thoreau’s classic novel: Walden; or, Life in the Woods, with a number of discarded objects (buttons, coins etc.) implanted in the pages. The title refers to a kind of comprised, objectified version / reading of the novel, but speaks on a more spiritual, ideological level. The spesific objects (typical discards found in the woods or in pockets) implanted in the first chapter of the novel, Economy, also hint at a kind of ”alternative” currency / economy.
Anders Smebye includes the textile Hunter´s Funeral with a motive refering to Hunter S Thompsons funeral. The legendary writer committed sucide in 2005, and his last will was executed by shooting his ashes out in the stratosphere with the use of a cannon, followed by a spectacular display of fireworks. In addition Smebye has brought along a poster. Sculpture Kills Top Ten is a top-ten listing with real deaths caused by, with, or in the near proximity of sculptures.
Lars Laumann premiers the film La Reine Est Morte. The film portrays a drunken taxiride and decadent pilgrimage in Lady Di´s footsteps, from Hotel Ritz to the scene of the accident in the Point d´Alma tunnel, altogether accompanied to the tune of Morrisey´s The Queen is Dead. Laumann also shows the fanzine Morrisey Foretelling the Death of Diana which lists several conspiracy theories speculating whether Morrisey´s lyrics contained hidden predictions about Diana´s death. The handwriting used throughout Laumann´s fanzine is a font created by The Smith´s fans, based on Morrisey´s own handwriting.
Jan Bünnig and Simon Rühles installation piece Fountain of Youth is a mobile fountain consisting of a plastic pool, a pump and clay. The mud is the healing type used in beauty spas. The original fountain of youth was a baroque idea; an era obsessed with eternal life. Fear of death is a symbol of the human tragedy - our limited time, the weakness of the flesh and the end of the cycle. Fountain of Youth is a reminder that we will all become dirt again at some point.
2007
16.03 - 25.03The installation Disco Wilhelm Reich (1998/2007) takes its vantage point from the laden interiors of discotheques. The work consists of a wooden box, the interior covered with metallic paint . It is illuminated by colorful hobby-room disco lights and thus poses as a dance floor. With its succinct form and materiality the makeshift discotheque, moreover, contains a hidden reference to the Orgone accumulator, the Orgone box developed by the psycho-analyst Wilhelm Reich in 1939. Based on Freud's theory of the "Libido", Reich advanced a theory of the orgasm and believed to have found a scientific explanation of the orgasmic reflex in so-called Orgone radiation. In accordance with the assumption that organic matter was attracting Orgone energy while metals were refracting them again, he constructed a metal box enclosed in timber - the Orgone accumulator which he used in the therapy of neuroses, later also in healing physical ailments. The installation is flanked by a slideprojection showing a series of filmstills from classic seventies dancemovies like Saturday Night Fever, Thank God It´s Friday and Carwash, combining these with images from the movie on Reich "W.R.-Mysteries of the Organism" by Dusan Makavejev. Schlamm (2001) is a video consisting of two parallel narratives presented as a splitscreen; one showing mediations on the interior of Haludovo Hotel, built in the early 1970's on the Croatian island Krk, back then still part of the communist, but non-aligned (block-free) Yugoslavia. The architect was Boris Magas, and one of the investors Bob Guccioni, the publisher of the Penthouse magazine. The other narrative is a reenactment of the activities taking place in the former Yugoslavian communist youth camps, where kids were frolicking in the grass, drinking, eating apples and rolling around in the mud all day. At least according to Lulic.
2007
Culture Clash
12.01 - 21.01This show is a bastardized version of an art exhibition, mixing television with art, dealing not just with the way the art market trades on rigid channels of distribution, but how art is dealt with, both within the art-world and in mass media. Fictitious representations of contemporary art and artists in mass media are highly influenced by romantic notions of the artist, but often based on actual works of art or real-life artists. These notions are propagated and reproduced by curators, writers, collectors, gallerists and artists.
Culture Clash makes a selection of representations from mass media available in an exhibition, presented side by side with work that deals critically with how and why these representations are still surfacing in a world where the artist has been thoroughly professionalized. Most of the art works in the exhibition are ripped and downloaded from archives and databases online. They are meant for reference only, and are not supposed to be exhibited. Here they are shown stripped of their technical brillliance and rid of an air of exclusivity.Curated by Geir Haraldseth
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