LIFE IS THE ONLY WAY
International mixed media group show
Curated by Malin Barth og Annine Birkeland
Co-production between 3,14 and Bergen Kjøtt for Bontelabo
Exhibition at Bontelabo 2
23.08. - 27.10.13
The exhibition Life Is the Only Way is an amalgamation of independent strong voices by ten international artists. Its aim is to make clear the sustaining connection between contemporary art and contemporary life. This is art which ought to generate public debate on issues of the day and whose participative works will be diverse in regards to combining aesthetic genres.
Bokja: Hoda Baroudi & Maria Hibri (LIB), Judy Chicago (USA), A K Dolven (NOR), Gardar Eide Einarsson (NOR), Roza Ilgen (NOR/KUR), Humberto Junca Casas (COL), Šejla Kamerić (BOS-HERZ), Nalini Malani (IND), Lars Morell (NOR), Cajsa von Zeipel (SWE) works span from visual formalism to the classical figurative in the poetic exploration and allegorical methods to address political and social realities. The Subject matters they address are gender issues, national borders and identity, localism verses globalism, areas of conflict and community, and the advantages and faults of progress.
The involvedness of the experience between individuals, groups, nations, social categories, genders and religions has been interwoven with globalization, encounters of personal narrations with collective experiences. Expectations, strains and losses have shaped the works on which the narrative of contemporary art is visible. All these issues inevitably reinforce each other and influence everyday life and human relations. The artists are juxtaposed together, creating new points of view, and proposes new interpretations of the existing world and social relations. Art has the power to surpass geopolitical divisions transforming global community into a collective narrative web made by different personal stories that complete or overturn official narrations.
As a curatorial starting point for this exhibition Life Is the Only Way, was Shirin Neshat´s video work “Turbulet”. The work was to be timely exhibited as this summer of 2013 Norway will celebrate 100 years of true democracy. Norway was the first independent country in the world to introduce universal suffrage, with women and men enjoying equal democratic rights. Shirin Neshat will instead be featured with a solo exhibition that now is in the making for a time when the entire 6th floor at Bontelabo will be able to be utilized.
At the same time as Life Is the Only Way, we will at jointing spaces also feature younger, local artists throughout the period: Anja Carr, Jacob Alrø, Tonje Bøe Birkeland, Katrine Sunde, Kristin Austreid, Anders Hergum. The works project into the future, while holding the recent past close at hand.
The exhibition is made in collaboration with the artists and Nyehaus Gallery, Galleri Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Oslo Kunstforening, Marius Wang, Trap, Rolf Hoff kunstsamling and Sørlandets Kunstmuseum.
Artists / works list >>>
Bokja: Hoda Baroudi & Maria Hibri:
And Then There Were None is an installation of tactile spheres each representing a leader from time. Injecting a twist of dark humor, Bokja presents the installation in parallel with the popular nursery rhyme, Ten Little Indians. Bokja warns of the timeless phenomena of dictatorship and playfully questions a day
when there will be none.
Catalog >>>
Artist presentations:
Humberto Junca Casas
24.08.2013
A K Dolven
06.10.2013