Press release – rum46, Århus, Denmark welcomes you to the exhibition
An exhibition with video works made by the artists Lars Nilsson (S), Kristin Tårnesvik (N) and Sixten Therkildsen (DK). Curated by Anne Szefer Karlsen (N).
Opening November 3rd 2006, 16.00 – 20.00
November 4th – 19th, Thursday – Sunday 13.00 – 17.00
Return Flight is an exhibition made up of three different stories from New York, seen from a Scandinavian perspective. The works are wildly different, but grows out of a two-week workshop hosted by the curator in New York June this year. Through the artist’s different fields of interest they portray both the ambivalence as well as the fascination Scandinavians have for New York, and the US. The title mirrors this, as well as indicating that none of the artists belong in the city they have been invited to use as a starting point for their works.
Before setting foot in a city like New York most people have a preconceived idea about it, and what they might be expected to find there. These ideas stem just as well from fact as fiction, historic events, television series, films and news footage. It would be wrong to claim that these works goes beyond this world of ideas, but rather they offer the audience three new ideas about New York. The artists have used their specific way of artistically dealing with the world, and utilized the city as a pool of inspiration.
Pleas read more about the individual works below.
Yours sincerely Anne Szefer Karlsen and rum46
Return Flight is supported by Århus Kommunes Kulturudviklingspulje, Kunststyrelsens Billedkunstudvalg, Bergen Kommune, OCA and Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond.
rum46 is supported by Århus Kommunes Kulturudviklingspulje.
rum46
Studsgade 46, st. tv.
8000 Århus C
Denmark
Tel. (+45) 8620 8625
www.rum46.dk, rum46@rum46.dk
Anne Szefer Karlsen: www.szefer.net
Lars Nilsson (S) has taken the opportunity to create the fourth episode of his animation series New Business. It portrays the three friends Peter, Klara and Jojo, who have started a small business specializing on making corporate web solutions. Every episode is built around quotes form already existing web pages which is set up to advise new business. One example is: ”Too many times, the guy with the idea takes on all his friends as partners.” The narrative in the series is similar to animations like the Simpsons or South Park. This fourth episode refers back to the reality as seen on TV, and the story tells the story of Klara being very upset about Peter’s flirt with American iconography. He has put a small American flag on his desk, imitating set ups like the American president’s desk in the TV-series The West Wing. The entire New Business series will be shown in Return Flight
Sixten Therkildsen (DK) shows his project Recollection Rally which is a result of an archive of press footage from New York in the 1930’s. It is not documented whether these images ever have been in printed in a newspaper, or ever seen by an audience. Even though they might be seen as out of date, the artist nevertheless tries to find new ways of using these images today. The images have a great deal of historical information, but the idea is that these historic events can speak with us in the future. Through constructed and real stories the artist investigates a politically potent period of time.
This project will be in constant change through the exhibition’s tour, and can be accessed at www.recollection-rally.org. The audience is encouraged to take part in the project through this site, and Therkildsen is thus continuing a string of projects actively involving the public.
Kristin Tårnesvik (N) has for a long time discussed themes relating to cultural and national belonging. In the video screened in Return Flight she has specifically used the encounter she had with New York as material. The luggage she brought with her across the Atlantic ocean, apart from a suitcase of clothes, was her constructed images of New York. She returned with hours upon hours of raw material; which now have been edited down to a non-linear story. The artitis’s and audience’s cultural point of departure is exposed and discussed in a project mixing documentary and fiction. We meet an American with Scandinavian roots, a sea voyage along the Hudson River and street scenes from this mighty city. The video is personal, but far from private.