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22/8/2008

Reality Effects

Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Hovikodden

Curators: Caroline Ugelstad and Tone Hansen
Music director: Lars Mørch Finborud

Høvikodden LIVE is the Henie Onstad Art Centre's annual arena for interdisciplinary activities which focus on collaborations between different artistic projects and institutions and the interplay between different forms of art.

The opening date of Høvikodden LIVE 08 on 23rd August marks the 40th anniversary of the inauguration of the Henie Onstad Art Centre. Apart from the exhibition, the anniversary will be celebrated by the world première of two commissioned musical works, one written and performed by the group SPUNK and the other composed by Lasse Marhaug. Gifts will be presented and the Art Centre's new outdoor stage will be officially opened with a unique, free concert starring Motorpsycho and Deathprod.

This year's exhibition, REALITY EFFECTS: when reality is put to work features a number of Norwegian and international contemporary artists. The artistic projects participating at the exhibition actively focus on or seek to influence the relationship between the economy, human migration and our mediatised reality. They throw light on our view of "reality" by means of a wide range of techniques, from videos to installations, sculptures and collages.

The Polish artist Artur Zmijevski has produced works that address cultural and political conflicts for a long time now. In the film Them (2007), which was shown at Documenta this year and other venues, a number of representatives from different religious and political groups meet in a workshop-like situation and various conflicts gradually come to the surface.

Sanja Ivekovic from Croatia's contribution is the work Figure & Ground (2005-2006), in which she casts a critical eye on traditional power structures related to gender, the media and the construction of reality through the recycling of fashion and news images. Her collages question the different poses and stances commonly used in the media.

The video installation Short Hills (1999), by the Austrian artist Dorit Margreiter, is another work whose starting point is our mediatised reality. Margreiter has been inspired by her own aunt and cousin's use of soap operas. By posing questions about how we use soap operas to create a feeling of cultural belonging and to express ourselves as people, she also addresses themes such as culture collisions and the elimination of natural borders.

Fiction takes on a whole new guise when the Swedish artist duo Goldin+Senneby generates fictitious business transactions in the on-going project Gone Offshore (2008). What is the relationship between opacity and transparency in the economic system of today? And how can concealed ownerships and power systems be disclosed by making them lay their cards on the table? Gone offshore is part of a project involving the writing of a novel based on a number of investigations. The artists have commissioned a writer John Barlow, who will be visiting the exhibition at the Henie Onstad Art Centre in order to take part in a staged conversation with one of the curators.

Matias Faldbakken contributes to the exhibition with two works that have never been shown in Norway before. Both works are about the material and virtual value of money. The photographic triptych Supernote (PN – 14342) from 2006 and the billboard strip Funny Money Gang created the same year, comment on the fictitious, dubious and counterfeit undertones of the relationship between human and capitalist value systems.

Fia Backström's Blonde Revolution (2004) is an installation that consists of a manifesto and a collection of pictures and quotations from works by exclusively blonde artists; a paraphrase of, and investigation into, the phenomenon of the "blonde" seen in terms of a minority group.

The Norwegian artist Per Oscar Leu's work Americka (If it was not for you, We would all speak German) from 2007 consists of the first edition of Franz Kafka's book "Amerika". Leu has organised a return journey to USA for the book – a journey that Kafka never managed to go on. This journey makes its mark on the back cover of the book. The work questions not only the function of an original work of art, but also the issue of human migration.

The Henie Onstad Art Centre is co-producer of two new works by the Indian media activist Shaina Anand: Cold Clinic and Capital Circus both focus on the new public spaces, conflicts and situations created by today's surveillance systems. We are also showing her more documentary and political project Khirkee Yaan from 2006, which was made for an urban district of New Delhi and functioned for a limited period as an open communication channel for the townspeople there.

The Danish artist Katya Sander's work Televised 1: the Anchor, the I and the Studio also examines the mechanisms behind news broadcasting and representation via the media. In the work, Sander interviews news anchors working in three different private and state TV channels in Rumania. Each interview begins with the simple question: "Do you ever use the word "I" when you are on the air?" Televised 1: the Anchor, the I and the Studio is a multimedia installation shown on 6 TV screens.

Throughout the autumn: an extensive concert programme and a number of LIVE events.

Music programme:
• August 23rd: Commissioned work: SPUNK (NO), Commissioned work: Lasse Marhaug (NO), Motorpsycho + Deathprod (NO)
• August 31st: Cory Arcangel (US), Nils Bech (NO), Opsvik & Jennings (NO / US)
• September 7th: Kjell Bjørgeengen (NO), Keith Rowe (GBR), Philipp Wachsmann (GBR)
• September 14th: Alexander Rishaug / Marius Watz (NO), Eric Malmberg (SE), Lasse Marhaug (NO)
• September 21st: Christian Wallumrød Ensemble (NO)
• September 28th: Håkon Kornstad (NO), Rockettothesky (NO), OSLO INN (NO)

Image: Shaina Anand

Exhibition opening: Saturday 23rd August 2008 at 2 pm.

Henie Onstad Art Centre
Sonja Henies vei 31 NO-1311 Høvikodden Norway
OPENING HOURS
Monday closed
Tuesday – Friday 11am - 7pm
Saturday – Sunday 11am - 5pm

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