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18/3/2010

Stop Making Sense

Oslo Kunstforening - Fine Art Society, Oslo

David Adika, Scandar Copti/Rabih Boukhary, Hanna Farah-Kufr Birim, Jumana Manna, Hila Lulu Lin, Nira Pereg, Roee Rosen, Dafna Shalom

The exhibition Stop Making Sense presents nine artists who live and work in Israel and whose backgrounds are Europe, Maghreb, the Middle East, or Palestine (Israel before 1948). The purpose of the exhibition is to call attention to the complex cultural identities, the artistic legacy and the socio-political orientations that engage contemporary artists who live and work in Israel. The participating artists represent different ways of approaching their own background, history and identity, what it means to be a working artist in a region that is geographically peripheral but which, at the same time, constitutes a medial and political focal point, a region in which some identify themselves towards the West (white) and others towards the East (black). Several of the artists participating in Stop Making Sense have chosen to work with different kinds of fractured narration, consciously mixing the signals, creating mixtures of fiction, reality and fantasy. An intricate pattern emerges, which leaves the visitor disoriented and confused rather than enlightened and clear-sighted.

The title of the exhibition, Stop Making Sense, comes from Jonathan Demme's film from 1984, which documents the 1983 Talking Heads tour Speaking in Tongues. In Girlfriend is Better David Byrne sings "As we get older and stop making sense; You won't find her waiting long; Stop making sense, stop making sense... stop making sense, making sense". David Byrne designed the cover for the album himself, on which the words Speaking in Tongues were written SP EAK IN GI N TO NGU ES. Speaking in tongues is a well-known phenomenon in many cultures, and is seen as an expression of spiritual inspiration, as when prayer brings you into a spiritual state of mind, in which God speaks to you through your body, often in a language that is incomprehensible to you, a nonsense language. As individuals, we have probably all at some time found ourselves in a situation that seems fixed, and the only way of progressing is to let go of our conventional, prejudiced thinking for a brief instant. Stop Making Sense encourages us to let go, to climb out of the frames in order to examine the irrational and absurd.

A seminar will be held the same day of the opening with the following key speakers: Tal Ben Zvi, Simon Njami, Irit Rogoff and Asaf Zippor. The seminar will be moderated by Marith Hope. Please scroll down for presentations of participants.

In connection with the exhibition and seminar a catalog will be published in paperback with essays by Tal Ben Zvi, Simon Njami, Ella Shohat and Irit Rogoff, along with presentations of the artists and a text by curator Marianne Hultman.

The exhibition, seminar and reader are produced by Oslo Kunstforening/Oslo Fine Art Society with support from the Norwegian Cultural Council, Morgenstjernen (The Morning Star) Foundation, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Freedom of Expression Foundation Oslo (Fritt Ord).

Seminar, 19 March, 9:30am-4:00pm
To register please send an e-mail to seminar@oslokunstforening.no
The price for participation is 200NOK and includes the exhibition publication, lunch and refreshments.

For more information
Please contact director Marianne Hultman; tel +47 22 423265 or marianne@oslokunstforening.no
or Therese Veier, assistant therese@oslokunstforening.no

The exhibition opens 19 March 7pm

Oslo Kunstforening / Oslo Fine Art Society
Radhusgaten 19, N-0158 Oslo, Norway

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