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PRESS KIT
THE WHITE, THE GREEN, AND THE DARK – Contemporary Positions from Norway
Exhibition Period: June 2–October 3, 2020
Venue: NORDIC EMBASSIES, FELLESHUS, RAUCHSTRASSE 1, 10787 BERLIN
CONTENTS
1 PRESS RELEASE
2 IMAGE LIST
3 ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES AND WORKS
4 CURATORIAL STATEMENT
5 FACT SHEET FELLESHUS
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1. PRESS RELEASE
THE WHITE, THE GREEN, AND THE DARK – Contemporary Positions from Norway
Frank Ekeberg | Inger Blix Kvammen | Torbjørn Kvasbø | Jonas K. Mailand | Britta Marakatt-Labba |
Synnøve Persen | Máret Ánne Sara | Jan Eric Wold Skevik | Kari Steihaug | Ingrid Torvund
CURATOR: Sabine Schirdewahn
Following the exhibition House of Norway (October 11, 2019–January 26, 2020), which took place at the Museum
Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt am Main on the occasion of Norway’s guest country appearance at the Frankfurter
Buchmesse, selected works from this presentation travelled to and are being presented in a new constellation
under the title The White, the Green, and the Dark. The 19 works by a total of ten artists are being shown at the
Felleshus of the Nordic Embassies from June 2–October 3, 2020.
Southern and western areas of Norway, with their coastal areas, lake landscapes, and forests, are very different
from the snowy tundra of the Finnmark in the northern regions or the arctic area in the northeast. The realities
of life are correspondingly different for the people who inhabit in each place. Life in Oslo and a handful of other
large cities is different from life in rural areas. The existence of an Indigenous ethnic group, whose cultural area
Sápmi extends across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and parts of Russia, provides different themes for artists than
the landscapes in Telemark, which are dominated by deep valleys and dark forests.
The film and sound installations, as well as sculptures, textiles, and objects shown in The White, the Green, and
the Dark offer visitors insights into the reflections on these different experiences. Many of the works focus on the
artist’s personal sense of identity and homeland, a reflection on these issues, or climatic and social changes. A
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further emphasis of the contemporary works on display are contributions by artists who belong to the Indigenous
ethnic group of the Sámi. These works tend examine individual and collective experiences in relation to tradition,
belief, discrimination, and foreign influence verses self-determination.
CONTACT [email protected] | +49 (0) 170 7047 099
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2. IMAGE LIST
THE WHITE, THE GREEN, AND THE DARK – Contemporary Positions from Norway
Please note the copyrights! These images are only to be used for press purposes promoting The White, the Green, and the Dark – Contemporary Positions from Norway. The images are not to be cropped. Please send 2 original copies of your publication to the following address: Kgl. Norwegische Botschaft | Rauchstraße 1 | 10787 Berlin | [email protected] By using the following images, the recipient agrees to the terms of usage. The reproduction of the images at a later point in time is only possible by written agreement with the exhibition organizer. Anyone reproducing these images thereby automatically agrees to the terms of usage.
1. Kari Steihaug Rue de Fourly, 2018 From the series Does anyone know that you’re coming Textile image Wool
200 × 290 cm
© Courtesy Kari Steihaug / VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2018 Photo: Thomas Tveter
2. Ingrid Torvund & Jonas K. Mailand Film still, Magic Blood Machine, 2012 Film, 21:56 min © Courtesy Ingrid Torvund, Jonas K. Mailand Photo: Jonas K. Mailand
3. Ingrid Torvund & Jonas K. Mailand Film still, When I go out I bleed magic, 2015 Film, 20:12 min © Courtesy Ingrid Torvund, Jonas K. Mailand Photo: Jonas K. Mailand
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4. Ingrid Torvund & Jonas K. Mailand Film still, I found you under earth, under blood, 2019 Film, 20:12 min
© Courtesy Ingrid Torvund, Jonas K. Mailand Photo: Jonas K. Mailand
5. Britta Marakatt-Labba Historjá (History), 2017 Video still Video installation, 4:36 min Camera: Ola Røe © Courtesy Britta Marakatt-Labba / VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2017
6. Britta Marakatt-Labba Movement, 2000 Embroidery on linen
63 × 105 cm
© Courtesy Britta Marakatt-Labba / VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2000 Photo: Hans Olof Utsi
7. Máret Ánne Sara Gielastuvvon (Snared), 2018 Installation Personal lassos from Sámi reindeer herders Variable dimensions © Courtesy Máret Ánne Sara Photo: Libor Galia
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8. Máret Ánne Sara Spirals of the Pile, 2018 Sculpture Reindeer jawbones from Pile O‘ Sápmi
150 × 60 cm
© Courtesy Máret Ánne Sara Photo: Øyvind Möller Bakken
9. Jan Eric Wold Skevik Salt Artefact N° 2, 2015 Object Cast sea salt Height 8 cm, Ø 13 cm © Jan Eric Wold Skevik Photo: Jan Eric Wold Skevik
10. Jan Eric Wold Skevik Salt Artefact N° 5, 2015 Object Cast sea salt Height 8 cm, Ø 13 cm © Jan Eric Wold Skevik Photo: Jan Eric Wold Skevik
11. Inger Blix Kvammen Rooted 3, 2015 Object Metal, part of reindeer harness, leather, plastic, rings of iron
15 × 20 cm, Ø 40 cm
© Courtesy Inger Blix Kvammen Photo: SDG / Liv Engholm
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12. Inger Blix Kvammen Tundra Girls, 2008 Object Oxidized silver, photo-laminate on Plexiglas, and natural pearls Height 11 cm, Ø 30 cm © Courtesy Inger Blix Kvammen Photo: SDG / Liv Engholm
13. Torbjørn Kvasbø Stack, tube forms, 2012 Sculpture Fired and sandblasted iron-rich clay, Height 70 cm, Ø 70 cm © Courtesy Torbjørn Kvasbø / VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2012 Photo: Sabine Schirdewahn
14. Torbjørn Kvasbø Trough Form, 1997 Sculpture Fired and sand-blasted iron-rich clay, plastic slabs, ash glaze Length 80 cm © Courtesy Torbjørn Kvasbø / VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 1997 Photo: Sabine Schirdewahn
15. Synnøve Persen Psithurism (Rustling of Leaves), 2014 Video still Video installation, 10:18 min © Synnøve Persen / VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2014
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3. ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES AND WORKS
FRANK EKEBERG (*1970) is an artist, performer, composer, and researcher. He studied music at the
Norwegian University of Science and Technology — NTNU in Trondheim and electronic music and recording
media at Mills College in Oakland, California. He subsequently earned a doctorate in electroacoustic music
composition from City, University of London. His work is transdisciplinary and positioned at the interface of art,
science, and technology, addressing issues of ecology, time and space, and radical change in relation to
ecosystems, biodiversity, and the extinction of species. With his sound installation Ingenmannsland (No Man’s
Land) Ekeberg questions the close connection between Norwegian identity and nature, which on the one hand
is perceived as something permanent and unbreakable but on the other is subject to a contemporary reality of
fragmentation, rapid change, and the effects of climate change, economic factors, and the shifts of time and
space. Ingenmannsland (No Man’s Land) specifically refers to the Norwegian rainforest, which has provided
stability for centuries and once covered much of the west coast. Today there are only scattered fragments of
the forest 80 percent of the forest have been lost in the last 100 years, and the rest is in danger of disappearing
within the next 50.
WORKS PRESENTED IN THE EXHIBITION:
Ingenmannsland (No Man’s Land) 2019 (multi-channel audio; field recordings; real-time computer processing)
On loan from the artist
Exhibitions and performances (selection):
- Unnatural Causes, Carroll Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, US, 2020
- House of Norway, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt a. M., DE, 2019/ 2020
- Elektroakustisk Trondheim, Kulturnatt 2019, Planetarium, Science Centre, Trondheim, NO
- RAY2018 EXTREME. ENVIRONMENTS, Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, Frankfurt a. M., DE, 2018
- VisArts, Rockville, Maryland, US, 2018
- The Immersed Listener, Rockheim, Trondheim, NO, 2017
- Birdland and the Anthropocene, Peale Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, US, 2017
- A New We, Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway, 2017
- Birding the Future Lab Series, Tracy Aviary, Salt Lake City, Utah, US, 2017
- GRM Multiphonies, Paris, FR, 2016
- The New Normal, Saville Gallery, Cumberland, Maryland, US, 2016
- Turf and Terrain: Arts in Foggy Bottom Sculpture Biennial. Washington DC, US, 2016
- Multi-media Art and Sculpture Exhibition, Watergate Gallery, Washington DC, US, 2016
- Futurescapes / Meta.Morf, Trondheim, NO, 2016
- King of the Forest: Adventures in Bioperversity, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, Virginia, US, 2016
www.frankekeberg.no
INGER BLIX KVAMMEN (*1954) is an artist and curator. She studied in Great Britain and the United States.
In her artistic work she deals with the memory traditions of Indigenous cultures and the topic of migration. As
co-initiator of the annual art festival Barents Spektakel, she is interested in international cultural exchange,
especially in the context of the Barents region, a border area between Russia and Finland in northeastern
Norway, where she also lives and works. Her project Tundra Archives, from which objects can also be seen in
the exhibition, deals with the few nomadic ethnic nations still living in northwestern Russia. With her
photographic and object-based works, Inger Blix Kvammen creates an archive of memory highlighting how
these unique cultures will disappear in the near future. She has developed a special method of processing metal
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using traditional textile techniques such as crocheting, weaving and embroidery, in which common forms of
body jewelry are interwoven with historical and symbolic elements.
WORKS PRESENTED IN THE EXHIBITION:
Captured, 2016 (object, cast silver beads, leather mesh, 925 silver, fine silver, coated copper, reindeer skin)
On loan from the artist
Rooted 3, 2015 (metal, part of harness for reindeer, leather, plastic, rings of iron 15 × 20 cm, Ø 40 cm) and
Tundra Girls, 2008 (oxidized silver, photo-laminate on Plexiglas and natural pearls, height 11 cm, Ø 30 cm),
Both works on loan from RiddoDuottarMuseet, Kárášjohka, Karasjok
Exhibitions (selection):
- House of Norway, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt a.M., DE, 2019 / 2020
- THERE IS NO, (curator) Nordnorsk Art Museum, Tromsø, NO, 2017
- TIDSREISER, juried traveling exhibition of the SDS, Tråante, NO, 2017
- AIBBAS RABAS, anniversary exhibition, Sámi Center for Contemporary Art, 2016
- MEMORY ARCHIVES-3 PROJECTS, Gallery Nordnorge, Harstad, NO, 2016 (solo)
- TUNDRA ARCHIVES, Narjan Mar, RU, 2016 (solo)
- TUNDRA ARCHIVES, Norwegian Spring Festival, Arkangelsk, RU, 2016 (solo)
- 3 MEMORY PROJECTS, Sámi Dáiddaguovvdáš (Sami Center for Contemporary Art), Kárášjohka, Karasjok, NO, 2015 (solo)
- Sámi Contemporary, Nordische Botschaften, Berlin, DE, 2015
www.ingerblixkvammen.net
TORBJØRN KVASBØ (*1953) studied at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design. He was professor at HDK-
Valand - Academy of Art and Design, University of Gothenburg and at Konstfack, University of Arts, Crafts and
Design. Torbjørn Kvasbø is internationally renowned for his sculptural ceramic works, in which he uses a wide
variety of techniques to explore the limits of the possibilities of clay, which is his elementary working material.
In particular, he pursues the surprising and unexpected that emerges through the process of firing. For the
firing of his works, which takes several days, he uses a wood-fed kiln (anagama), which he built himself. The
original model of this tunnel kiln, which Kvasbø encountered in Japan, comes from ancient East Asia and can
reach temperatures of up to 1,400 °C. Since 2009, Torbjørn Kvasbø has been creating his Stack series,
sculptures consisting of clay-formed pipes, tubes or hollow coils, two of which are shown in the exhibition.
Asked in an interview about the significance of the recurring motif in his work, Kvasbø answered by
paraphrasing Karl Ove Knausgård’s book Winter (2018): “All liquid is transported through pipes. These tubes
come in all sizes, from huge concrete pipes that carry water from lakes to the turbines of power stations, to
the smallest subtle capillary tubes that transport blood in the body—the umbilical cord, the neck and intestines,
and the urethra—which makes the tube principle perhaps the most fundamental condition of life.”
WORKS PRESENTED IN THE EXHIBITION:
Trough form, 1997 (sculpture, iron-rich clay, plastic slabs, ash glaze, fired and sand-blasted, length 80 cm)
Stack, tube forms, 2012 (sculpture, iron-rich clay, fired and sandblasted, height 70 cm, Ø 70 cm)
On loan from the artist
Exhibitions (selection):
- Shanghai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China, 2020 (solo)
- Taoxichuan Museum, Jingdezhen, CN (solo)
- Korean International Ceramic Biennale (GICB), KR, 2019—2020 (solo)
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- House of Norway, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt a. M., DE, 2019—2020
- About Clay, Exhibition of European Ceramic Art in Fiskars, FI, 2018
- Sèvres National Ceramics Museum, Paris, FR, 2018
- Kunsthall Grenland, Porsgrunn, NO, 2017
- 4th Documentary Exhibition of Fine Arts/Stress Field. Hubei Museum of Art, Hubei, CH, 2017
- Hangzhou International Contemporary Ceramic Art Biennale, CN, 2016
- SOFA, Chicago, US, 2014
- Beyond G(l)aze, Jinji Lake Art Museum, Suzhou, CN, 2014
- Lillehammer Art Museum, Lillehammer, NO, 2013
- Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London, GB, 2013
www.kvasbo.com
BRITTA MARAKATT-LABBA (*1951) studied textile art at the Konstindustriskolan (today the HDK-Valand
– Academy of Art and Design, at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden). This was followed by studies at the
Sámi University of Applied Sciences in Kautokeino, Norway. In 2014 she received an honorary doctorate from
the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts. Marakatt-Labba grew up in a reindeer herding family. Her father died when
she was five years old. Her mother had to raise nine children on her own. In 1978 Britta Marakatt-Labba joined
the Sámi Artist Group. She gained worldwide recognition with her epic textile artwork Historjá (History) (2003–
07), which was exhibited at documenta 14 and which tells the story of the Sámi people across 24 meters of
fabric. The Indigenous population of the Sámi has been living from hunting and reindeer husbandry in the arctic
regions of Europe that encompass areas of Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Russia, for several thousand years.
As semi-nomads with a shamanistic culture, they were subjected to recurring policies of colonial conquest and
forced Christianization from the fourteenth century well into the twentieth century. In the current exhibition
Historjá takes the form of a video installation. With this work now translated into a film and the textile work
Movement, Britta Marakatt-Labba provides insights into the history of her ancestors, bringing them to life
through their culture and mythologies. At the same time, she draws attention to the difficult process of coming
to terms with the historical past and identity of the Sámi.
WORKS PRESENTED IN THE EXHIBITION:
Historjá (History), 2017 (video installation, 4:36 min., camera: Ola Røe)
On loan from Ola Røe
Movement, 2000 (embroidery on linen)
On loan from the artist
Exhibitions and performances (selection):
- House of Norway, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, 2019—2020
- Nordic Impressions Contemporary Art From Åland, Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, Scandinavia
House, New York, US, 2019
- History in Stitches, Lunds Konsthall, Lund, SE, 2018 (solo)
- The Moderna Exhibition, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SE, 2018
- Britta Marakatt-Labba, Nordnorsk Art Museum, Tromsø, NO, 2017 (solo)
- documenta 14, Kassel, DE/Athens, GR, 2017
www.brittaml.se
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SYNNØVE PERSEN (*1950) is an artist, poet and Sámi activist. She was a founding member of the Sámi
Artist Group (1978). Synnøve Persen studied at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, among other institutions. As a painter and poet, she grew up in the northern landscape, which serves as a natural source of inspiration. Inspired by her belief in the universal nature of creation, she makes connections between culture and nature in her poetic works. On view in the exhibition, Synnøve Persen’s video work Psithurism (Rustling of Leaves) deals with original living environments and how these have changed both in terms of perception and in their physical make-up. The work was created in Finnmark. Without showing the ground or the sky it focuses on the movement and sounds of the wind and the rustling of leaves in an aspen forest. It refers to holy places in nature, which have a spiritual and sacred meaning, especially in many Indigenous cultures, and therefore need to be protected. In an animist sense, a mountain, forest, lake, etc. can be defined as a holy place.
WORK PRESENTED AT THE EXHIBITION:
Psithurism (Rustling of Leaves), 2014 (video installation, 10:18 min.)
On loan from the artist
Exhibitions (selection):
- Sámi Dáiddaguovvdáš (Sami Center for Contemporary Art), Kárášjohka, Karasjok, NO, 2020
- House of Norway, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt a. M., DE, 2019/2020
- Historier, Queen Sonjas Art Stable, Oslo, NO, 2019
- Čájet ivnni, Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš (Sami Center for Contemporary Art), Kárášjohka, Karasjok, NO, 2017—2018,
- documenta 14, EMST-the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, GR, 2017
- THERE IS NO, Nordnorsk Art Museum, Tromsø, NO, 2017
- Show me Colour, SDG arr. Tråante, NO, 2017
- Adde Zetterquist kunstgalleri, Storjord, NO, 2017
- Beauty and Truth, Tromsø Kunstforening, Tromsø, NO, 2014
- Kollektiv, Galleri Henrik Gerner, Moss, NO, 2012
- Synnøve Persen — Paintings, Text, Audio, Artist Book, Video, Sámi Dáiddaguovvdáš (Sami Center for Contemporary Art),
Kárášjohka, Karasjok, NO, 2009 (solo)
www.synnovepersen.no
MÁRET ÁNNE SARA (*1983) lives and works in Kautokeino (Finnmark). She studied English Language and
Literature at the University of Tromsø, Indigenous Journalism at the Sámi University College, Kautokeino, and
Art and Illustration at the Arts University in Bournemouth, UK. In Kautokeino she also trained as a product
designer and was editor of the Sámi youth magazine Š Nuoraidmagasiidna. Máret Ánne Sara is the initiator of
the artist collective Dáiddadállu. Her artistic work has been shown in exhibitions since 2003. She became
internationally known through her participation in documenta 14 with her art project Pile o’ Sápmi. As an artist,
author, and journalist, Máret Ánne Sara focuses on the oppression of Indigenous peoples. Her work
consistently deals with a reflection of and the survival of Indigenous cultures, especially the Sámi culture.
Having an underlying political motivation, her practice often addresses the immediate experience of these
cultures and the real existential threats that they and their livelihoods face. Consequently, she sees art, in
addition to journalistic work, as another form and possibility of social communication. Máret Ánne Sara herself
comes from a family of reindeer herders. She describes her installation Gielastuvvon (Snared) for which she
has collected original lassos from Sámi reindeer herders, as follows: “For me, this primitive tool is a powerful
image of the plight of people living in and with the wilderness and nature, and it is the echo of a constant and
accelerating struggle against the growing capitalist societies that surround us, which intend to proceed with
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the never-ending ‘development’ and growth incompatible with sustainable thinking and traditional
livelihoods.”
WORKS PRESENTED IN THE EXHIBITION:
Gielastuvvon (Snared), 2018 (installation, personal lassos from Sámi reindeer herders, variable dimensions)
Spirals of the pile, 2018 (sculpture, bones of the remaining jaws from the reindeer heads of Pile o‘ Sápmi, 150
× 60 cm)
On loan from the artist
Exhibitions (selection):
- 40 jagi – Ávvočájáhus, Anniversary Exhibition, Art Association Alta, NO, 2019/2020
- House of Norway, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt a. M., DE, 2019/2020
- PINNERSAAT, Nuuk Art Museum, Nuuk, GL, 2019
- Historier, Queen Sonjas Art Stable, Oslo, NO, 2019
- Everyone says Hallo, Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo, NO, 2018/2019
- True Stories, Meet Factory, Prague, CZ, 2018/2019
- Let the river flow, Tensta Konsthall, Sámi Daiddaguovddas, SE, 2018-2019
- Sámi Identity - A Summer Exhibition, Nordkapp Museum, NO, 2018
- Pile o´ Sápmi Supreme in Context, Tenthaus Oslo, NO, 2017
- Madness, Southbank Centre, London, GB, 2017
- documenta 14, Kassel Germany, DE, 2017
- Expanded Madness, The Art Gallery, Luleå, SE, 2015 (solo)
- Winterfestival, Museum Nord, Narvik, GL, 2015 (solo)
www.maretannesara.com
JAN-ERIC WOLD SKEVIK (*1979) studied graphic design, communication at the Chelsea College of Art and
Design and medium and material art at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. In 2017, he received the
Foundation for Art and Design Students' Award from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts for the best thesis.
In his work, Jan-Eric Wold Skevik experiments with chemical-physical technologies and processes. With the Salt
Artefacts shown in the exhibition, Jan-Eric Wold Skevik has created objects that look like the found jewelry
from thousands of years ago. It is no secret that these artifacts are made of pure salt and are thus deprived of
any function they might seem to serve; they would simply be damaged if used, especially if they were to come
into contact with moisture—a concept that conveys a certain sense of magic. Through the combination of the
extreme fragility of the material and the objects’ archaic forms, Jan Eric Wold Skevik’s way of imagining the
dimensions of time evokes transience, decay, and forgetting, and thus also the dwindling possibility of
remembering, because it is the connection between things and their stories that fundamentally enable a look
to the past.
WORKS PRESENTED IN THE EXHIBITION:
Salt Artefact N° 2, 2015 (object, cast sea salt)
Salt Artefact N° 5, 2015 (object, cast sea salt)
Salt Artefact N° 6, 2015 (object, cast sea salt)
Salt Artefact N° 8, 2015 (object, cast sea salt)
On loan from the artist
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Exhibitions (selection): - House of Norway, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt a. M., DE, 2019/ 2020
- Group exhibition, Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo, NO, 2019
- Transit, Gallery Seilduken, Oslo, NO, 2016
- Open Call, Gallery Seilduken, Oslo, NO, 2016
- Under the Stairs, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, DE, 2016
- Opaco/Translúcido, Gallery Seilduken, Oslo, NO, 2016
- Open Call, Gallery Seilduken, Oslo, NO, 2015
- Fragmented, Podium, Oslo, NO, 2014
- Kropp og Kjønn /Body and Sex, Saltarelli Lounge, Oslo, NO, 2013
www.cargocollective.com/janericskevik
KARI STEIHAUG (*1962) lives and works in Oslo. She received her education from the Oslo National
Academy of the Arts, the Bergen Academy of Art and Design, and Manchester Metropolitan University. Kari
Steihaug works with traditional craft techniques. Her installations and textile paintings are not designed to be
flawless. The processual, fragmentary, deconstructive, and fragile are expressions of her artistic language. The
poetry of her work lies in its imperfection. References to art history, images of the everyday, and symbols of
the ephemeral play an elementary role in Kari Steihaugs works.
The work Rue de Fourly, which is part of her series Does anyone know that you’re coming, uses embroidery and
weaving techniques to talk about the ordinary, about entrances to buildings from the streets and people, and
perhaps even their fates, without them being present. In her works, which draw from painting, fragmentation
symbolizes social situations.
WORKS PRESENTED IN THE EXHIBITION:
Rue de Fourly, from the series Does anyone know that you’re coming, 2018 (textile picture, wool, 290 × 200
cm)
On loan from the artist
Exhibitions (selection):
- House of Norway, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt a. M., DE, 2019/2020
- Does anyone know that you’re coming, Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo, NO, 2018 (solo)
- Seamstress in Trastevere, Fiberspace Gallery, Stockholm, SE, 2018 (solo)
- Munchs Hus, Haugar Art Museum, Tønsberg, NO, 2018
- Healing, Design Museum Helsinki, FI, 2018
- VII Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art, Montevideo, UY, 2017
- Tomorrow will be a nice day, Art Association Kongsberg, NO, 2017 (solo)
- Seamstress in Trastevere, Soft Gallery, Oslo, NO, 2017 (solo)
- REPAIR; Potensial, Biennial of Drawing, SKETCH, Galleri Rom, Oslo, 2016
- Unraveled, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, US, 2016
- The room you say we do not have, Luleå Art Hall, SE, 2014 (solo)
- Bloom, International Fashion Art Exhibition, Changsha, CN, 2015
- Textil Biennale, Rijswijk Museum, NL, 2015
- Soft Monuments, Kode, Art Museums of Bergen, NO, 2015
- Ruudukko, Marmara University Art Hall, Istanbul, TR, 2014
www.karisteihaug.no
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INGRID TORVUND (*1985) lives and works in Oslo and Telemark. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts
from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Ingrid Torvund works with film, installation, objects, sculpture,
and drawing. The film trilogy Under Earth on view in the exhibition was created between 2009 and 2019 in
collaboration with Jonas K. Mailand. Most of the filming took place in Kviteseid in the province of Telemark,
where the artist grew up.
In the works Magic blood machine, When I go out I bleed magic, and I found you under earth, under blood,
Ingrid Torvund dresses up with specially made costumes and props, thus performing the roles of the fictional
creatures that appear in the films. By embodying non-human beings, she playfully creates links to primal inner
images associated with superstition, mysticism, and the forest. The films symbolize core fears and the need to
appease these feelings through magical, religious, or other mysterious rituals. The dark forest landscapes of
Telemark are known for their folkloric tales in which pagan and Christian symbols coexist side by side: dragons,
angels, crosses, demons, trolls, and talking animals. Torvund’s films, paintings, and sculptures thus transport
the viewer into the cosmos of a mystical and extremely enigmatic universe.
JONAS K. MAILAND (*1985) lives as an artist and photographer in Oslo. He works on various projects in
the fields of photography, film, and theater. Together with Ingrid Torvund he created the film trilogy Under
Earth.
WORKS PRESENTED AT THE EXHIBITION:
Magic blood machine, 2012 (film, 21:56 min.)
When I go out I bleed magic, 2015 (film, 20:12 min.)
I found you under earth, under blood, 2019 (film, 27:31 min.)
On loan from the artists
Exhibitions (selection): - House of Norway, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt a. M., DE, 2019/2020
- Under earth, Kunsthall Oslo, NO, 2019 (solo)
- Coexistence, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, FI, 2019
- Karnevalet, Intercultural Museum, Oslo, NO, 2019
- I found you under earth, under blood, Hå gamle Prestegård, NO, 2019 (solo)
- I found you under earth, under blood, Blokk, Oslo, NO, 2018 (solo)
- Protection against an evil friend, Soft Gallery, Oslo, NO, 2018 (solo)
- The Oslo Museum of Contemporary Art, Kunsthall Oslo, NO, 2017
- Nordic Matters , Southbank Center in London, GB, 2017
- I found you under earth, under blood, Kurant, NO, 2016 (solo)
- When I go out I bleed magic, Italian Palace, SE, 2016 (solo)
www.ingridtorvund.com // www.jonasmailand.com
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4. CURATORIAL STATEMENT Following the exhibition House of Norway, which took place at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt am
Main on the occasion of Norway’s guest country appearance at the Frankfurt Book Fair from October 11, 2019 to
January 26, 2020, selected contemporary positions from Norway traveled to Berlin and are being presented in a
new constellation under the title The White, the Green, and the Dark at the Felleshus of the Nordic Embassies
from June 2 to October 3, 2020. (The exhibition opening has been postponed until further notice.)
Like House of Norway, this exhibition can be read as a special kind of journey, in which the works are reconstituted
in a different architectural environment. In developing the concept of House of Norway, Matthias Wagner K and
I considered the unusual things that we had become familiar with as travelers. What we mean by this are our
first-time and recurring encounters, moments of astonishment and things that gave us pause, or new discoveries
among things that had seemed known and familiar. We encountered a country that is shaped by different
landscapes, climates, and densities of population. The southern and western coastal areas, lake landscapes, and
forests are very different from the snowy tundra of the Finnmark in the northern areas or the arctic regions in the
northeast; life in Oslo and the handful of other big cities is different from life in rural areas. Accordingly, we
understood not only the different realities of people’s lives in the various places but also the range of inspiration
for their artistic and creative work. Thus, the lived experience of an Indigenous ethnic group whose cultural area,
Sápmi, stretches across Norway, Sweden, Finland and parts of Russia, presents different themes for artists and
designers than the landscapes of Telemark, which are defined by deep valleys and dark forests, which in turn lead
to other forms of expression and the association of different meanings with the works.
Often artists and designers focus on their personal relationship to and examination of their own identity and
homeland. This includes, for example, the film trilogy Under Earth by Ingrid Torvund, which was created in
collaboration with Jonas K. Milan between 2009 and 2019. Most of the filming took place in Kviteseid in the
province of Telemark, where the artist grew up. The dark forest landscapes of the province of Telemark are known
for their folkloric narratives in which pagan and Christian symbols exist side by side: dragons, angels, crosses,
demons, trolls, and talking animals all feature in this tradition. Torvund’s films transport the viewer into the
mystical and fairytale universe with dragon-like, but also futuristic creatures.
Another important focus of the exhibition is on works by artists belonging to the Indigenous Sámi ethnic group.
The artists presented—who certainly since their inclusion in documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel in 2017 have
gained worldwide recognition and attention—deal with individual and collective experiences, traditions, beliefs,
discrimination, and foreign influence verses self-determination.
With her embroidery Movement and the video adaptation of her work Historjá (History), Britta Marakatt-Labba
tells about the traditions and history of the Sámi in the Norwegian Finnmark. The installation Gielastuvvon
(Snared) by Máret Ánne Sara consists of lassos usually used by reindeer herders. In the exhibition space they hang
from the ceiling like gallows. The artist thus refers to the Norwegian authorities’ regulations concerning grazing
areas and the size of reindeer herds. The restrictions pose a threat to the livelihoods of many Sámi—especially
for the younger generation—to the point that some see suicide as the only way out.
Frank Ekeberg questions notions of the indestructability and permanence of the Norwegian mythical view of
nature, drawing on the work of to the Norwegian poet and environmentalist Theodor Caspari (1853–1948). With
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his sound installation Ingenmannsland (No Man’s Land) he shows that this myth is at once subject to a reality of
fragmentation, rapid change, and the effects of climate. The work focuses on the Norwegian rainforest, which
once covered a large part of the west coast. Today there are only scattered fragments of the forest; 80 percent
has been lost over the last 100 years and the rest is in danger of disappearing over the next 50. In an acoustic
fiction that plays out as a reversed time-lapse lasting several hours, we experience the shift in the vitality of life in
the fragmented remaining forest. While bird voices can still be heard at the beginning of the film, they gradually
give way to sounds of destruction, which Frank Ekeberg recorded with highly sensitive microphones placed under
the curled bark of the trees.
Artists and designers of the exhibition: Frank Ekeberg, Inger Blix Kvammen, Torbjørn Kvasbø, Jonas K. Mailand,
Britta Marakatt-Labba, Synnøve Persen, Máret Ánne Sara, Jan Eric Wold Skevik, Kari Steihaug, Ingrid Torvund
Curator: Sabine Schirdewahn
Idea and concept: Sabine Schirdewahn, Matthias Wagner K
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5. THE FELLESHUS OF THE NORDIC EMBASSIES FUNCTION
The Felleshus—in English "Community House"—is the freely accessible cultural and event center of the five Nordic embassies (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). Public exhibitions and readings, concerts, film screenings, lectures and conferences take place here. Here you can find information about the Nordic countries. There is a public canteen (run by Kenneth Gjerrud from the restaurant Munch's Hus in Berlin-Schöneberg) and a café, the Kaffebar (run by the Oslo Kaffebar with its original shop in Berlin-Mitte). The building also houses the consular departments of the embassies. ARCHITECTURE & HISTORY The Nordic Embassies in Berlin are a globally unique project: a joint embassy complex for five countries, established against the backdrop of a common history, relationships that have grown over centuries, common languages, and shared values and convictions. The international architectural competition for the overall concept was won by the Austrian-Finnish firm Berger + Parkkinen in 1995. The underlying concept was to make visible this strong community of five individual countries. In Berger + Parkkinen’s design, a green copper band connects the Felleshus and the five embassy buildings, which were designed by architectural firms from the respective countries. The houses are arranged according to their position on the map, with the North Sea and Baltic Sea symbolized by three water basins between the buildings. This copper enclosure, which is almost 230 meters long and 15 meters high, consists of some 4,000 pre-patinated lamellas, which—like other materials used in the complex—have not been treated or coated. The open space within the copper enclosure, the plaza, is traversed by twelve intersecting lines of white marble. The lines define the boundaries of the respective embassy buildings, but at the same time form paths and optical connections between the buildings.
The inauguration took place on October 20, 1999 in the presence of all the Nordic heads of state. Using phrase "Each autonomous, and yet together" in her inaugural speech, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark set the tone that would guide the future cooperation between the five nations. Design: Berger + Parkkinen Embassy area: 7500 sq m (grounds; footprint 3425 sq m) Awards: AIT Award Best of Europe: Office, 2004 DuPont Benedictus Award, category Best Government Building, 2003 Finalist at the Mies van der Rohe Award, 2001
PROGRAM In addition to the exhibitions and individual events (concerts, panel discussions, readings, conferences, performances, film screenings, and much more), there are also series of events, such as the reading series Book of the Month. For this event, the featured book is exhibited and sold in the foyer of the Felleshus in cooperation with the partner bookstore Pankebuch - Die schönsten Bücher des Nordens. For most events there are readings, and sometimes also book premieres. From time to time, both established and yet to be discovered Nordic musicians perform in the series Jazzkantine in the relaxed bar atmosphere of the canteen. A monthly newsletter and a program flyer published three times a year provide information about the current program.
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FIGURES The Felleshus is open almost every day of the year except Christmas. On average, almost 100,000 people visit the Felleshus every year, which averages to about 275 visitors per day. Every year, some 500 events take place at this location. These are exclusively events organized by or in cooperation with the Nordic Embassies.
2019 88,694 visitors (253 per day) 465 events 22,081 participants 9 exhibitions, 4 of them on the exhibition space
2018 100,736 visitors (285 per day) 534 events 25,613 participants 5 exhibitions, 4 of them on the exhibition space ADDRESS & CONTACT INFORMATION Rauchstr. 1 D-10787 Berlin Phone +49 (0)30-5050-0 info [at] nordischebotschaften.org www.nordischebotschaften.org
OPENING HOURS The Felleshus of the Nordic Embassies is open to visitors daily. No appointment necessary. Admission is free. The individual embassy buildings are not accessible to visitors. Please note the current opening hours and follow updates at: www.nordischebotschaften.org The exhibition can be visited Monday to Friday 14.00 to 19.00.
