Skate Culture
dal 24/3/2006 al 24/5/2006
Segnalato da
24/3/2006
Skate Culture
Preus Museum, Horten
Skateboard culture has become one of the strongest visual subcultures of our time. With its close links to punk rock it has developed a distinctive visual dimension that makes advanced use of appropriation, logos and detournement.
Artists/photographers: Pontus Alv (SE), Cheryl Dunn/Mark Gonzales (US), Gardar Eide
Einarsson (NO/US), Marius Engh (NO), Wiebke Groesch/Frank Metzger (DE), HSK, Tuukka
Kaila (FI/UK), Jakob Kolding (DK/DE), Fred Mortagne (FR), Mike O’Meally (AUS), Scott
Pommier (CA), Tommy Solstad (NO), Craig Stecyk (US), Deanna Templeton (US), Ed
Templeton (US).
Skateboard culture has become one of the strongest visual subcultures of our time.
In the exhibition Skate Culture, Preus museum investigates the massive cultural
production coming from today’s world of skateboarding.
Erupting from the Californian surf scene and branching out into street art and
street clothing, skateboard culture has spanned the globe with its focus on
individuality, freedom and a transgressive mixture of sport and play. In addition
skate culture has become an integrated part of urban youth culture and is
consciously employed as a corrective to the hegemonic order through its use of urban
sites and non-sites. With its close links to, for example, punk rock, skate culture
has developed a distinctive visual dimension that makes advanced use of
appropriation, logos and what the French situationists refer to as detournement -
the reuse, often with subtle modifications, of visual cliches, which
generally results in an altered perception of those cliches.
In addition to having created a series of visual icons, skateboarding has evolved
into a culture in which photography and film/video has become an integral part of
the social environment. The camera is ever present in today’s skate sessions and the
channels of distribution for the images created are strong and effective and to a
certain extent exclusive - all traits that define a healthy subculture. Through
magazines like Thrasher and skateboard videos and DVDs - which are one of the
foremost channels for the marketing of skateboard products - the skateboarding scene
has developed a visual language that is part sports coverage and part construction
of an identity and a lifestyle.
All these characteristics of skate culture have been used by visual artists, with
Mark Gonzales (US) and Ed Templeton (US) as two of the best known international
names. One characteristic of these artists is their fusion of a photographic
snapshot idiom with other forms of visual expression notable for their simple
technique and rapid turnover, such as graffiti and expressive painting. In Germany
Michel Majerus transformed a museum into a skateboard ramp, while in Scandinavia
Jakob Kolding (DK) and Gardar Eide Einarsson (NO), among others, have seen
skateboard culture through the matrix of urban theory and politics.
The exhibition is an initiative of Preus museum and is produced in cooperation with
Bergen Kunsthall. Scate Culture is financially supported by Arts Council Norway and
Goethe-Institut Oslo.The curators are Jonas Ekeberg and Gardar Eide Einarsson.
Tour itinerary: Preus museum (25.03.-21.05.2006), Bergen Kunsthall
(September-October 2006). In conjunction with the opening at Bergen Kunsthall there
will be a seminar entitled “Curating Visual Culture".
Opening: Saturday 25 March, h 14
Preus Museum
Kulturparken Karljohansvern - Hotern