17/10/2002
Memoria
G.U.N., Oslo
'Memoria' takes up the theme of the portrait of the author as an icon / anti-icon, and also addresses issues of remembrance, forgetting, and repression such as have played such a decisive role in the way Knut Hamsun and his literary work have been received.
The photograph showing writer Knut Hamsun at the age of 80 is torn up. Over and over again.
The destruction of the picture is repeatedly undertaken again: the endless loop of tape makes certain the process never comes to an end.
The video installation entitled 'Monument' by artist duo Carlesso Carlesso in the project room at the Gallery F 15 in Moss focuses on the trauma which the behavior of Norway's renowned novelist caused among his fellow countrymen. Knut Hamsun himself destroyed the myth that was created about him, namely that he was a herald of Norwegian national identity and culture. And in the history of that country he has played the part not of hero but of anti-hero, as was shown by the response to the 50th anniversary of his death - the 'Knut Hamsun' topic remains as controversial as ever in Norway today.
The German couple concentrate in their piece on the portrait of the author as an object for any manner of projections. The video installation is accompanied by the exhibition 'Memoria', which Carlesso Carlesso are simultaneously showing in the G.U.N. Gallery in Oslo.
'Memoria' takes up the theme of the portrait of the author as an icon / anti-icon, and also addresses issues of remembrance, forgetting, and repression such as have played such a decisive role in the way Knut Hamsun and his literary work have been received.
Visitors are encouraged in this way to tackle the topic of Hamsun for themselves.
In the gallery room, a computer voice can be heard endlessly repeated, quoting the death sentence Hamsun essentially penned for himself: his obituary on Adolf Hitler.
A key part of the exhibition is the presence of Carlesso Carlesso in the gallery as part of the 'Art of Hospitality' gallery project.
Carlesso Carlesso: Isolde Döbele-Carlesso and Mirco Andrea Carlesso have been collaborating as artists since 1995. The couple made their first public appearance under the name of Carlesso Carlesso in 1999.
The oeuvre of Carlesso Carlesso focuses, among other things, on the various forms of photographic portraiture. Moreover, the artist duo also concentrate on fundamental issues relating to our culture of commemoration.
Carlesso Carlesso were invited by the G.U.N. Gallery, who also organized the exhibition in the project room of Gallery F 15 in Moss.
G.U.N.
Markveien 58 N-0550
Oslo