Andrew Amorim, Ane Graff, Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena, Marjolijn Dijkman & Toril Johannessen, Kamilla Langeland and Jenine Marsh.
‘The atoms of our bodies are traceable to stars that manufactured them in their cores and exploded these enriched ingredients across our galaxy, billions of years ago. For this reason, we are biologically connected to every other living thing in the world. We are chemically connected to all molecules on Earth. And we are atomically connected to all atoms in the universe. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust.’
― Neil deGrasse Tyson
This exhibition brings together a group of artists who all challenge our perception and create an awareness of how different elements are entangled in a network of relations. The complexity and relational nature in their works offer a change of perspective of the world and our place in it. Through sculpture, photography, collage, film and drawing; microscopic to intergalactic matter are studied through the camera lens, observed through the microscope, the telescope, or by techniques like inversion, touch and growth, pressings, or free association combining imagery and symbols from dreams and memories. These artists perceive the world as a continuous and difficult dialogue with objects, memories, sensations, possibilities and prohibitions. There is a scale shift that occurs from the imperceivable to the personal, from the intangible to the physical and from the alien to the familiar, which vibrates between these works.
The title of this exhibition is borrowed from one of its artworks and originates from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet (1929).
Captured through a light microscope, the collaborative works by Marjolijn Dijkman & Toril Johannessen show a diverse cast of microorganisms, sampled from brackish water, alongside algae, cultivated in a laboratory. The works are partly based on studies in the laboratory, the artists’ own research and investigations, and historical records, which are brought into the realm of fiction, abstraction and speculation. Kamilla Langeland makes use of snapshots, large format negatives, scientific photographs and vintage negatives to create collages that are often overlaid with photograms, combining found objects with personal belongings to create silver gelatin prints, often hand-colored with pigments. Andrew Amorim is an interdisciplinary artist working with photography, film, video installation, sound, and text to explore themes of memory and decay. He often works by staging actions in front of a camera, subsequently combining found and original material through reproduction and editing. In Ane Graff’s drawings, the surface and structure of organic matter such as bird wings, grass, trees and rocks are closely examined. At the core of her work is the poetics of scientific research and understanding the world through collection, observation and verification. Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena arrived in Stockholm as a refugee in the late 70’s, and his personal experience is central to his artistic practice, where he maps out narratives and imagery of the extreme and sublime through photography, film, collages and sculpture. Jenine Marsh employs found and close-at-hand materials such as plant matter, urban trash, body-casts and coins in her work. Fragmented, pluralized, distorted and destroyed, her sculptural process is guided by an intersectional feminist directive to re-imagine spaces and bodies outside of predominant patriarchal, capitalistic perspectives.
Artist bios
Andrew Amorim (b. 1983, Belém, Brazil) lives and works between Bergen, Norway and Kampala, Uganda. He graduated from the Bergen Academy of Arts and Design in 2016. Recent solo exhibitions include The Future Stands Still but We Move in Infinite Space at Bergen Kjøtt, Bergen (NO); Lest We Perish at Entrée x Independent Hq, Harlem, New York (US); Lest We Perish, K4 gallery, Oslo (NO); After Touch, Space 4235, Genova (ITA) and Material Light (with Numi Thorvarsson) at Bergen Kjøtt, Bergen (NO). His work has also been included in the exhibitions After the Exhibition, Hordaland Art Centre, Bergen (NO); The Young Lions, Preus Museum, Horten (NO); The National Juried Spring Exhibition, Melk, Oslo (NO); eõ, NoPlace, Oslo (NO) and I: project space in Beijing (CHN).
Ane Graff (b. 1974, Bodø, Norway) lives and works in Oslo. She graduated from the Bergen National Academy of the Arts in 2004 and currently holds a position of Research Fellow at the Oslo Academy of Fine Art. Recent exhibitions include Soon enough: Art in Action, Tensta Konsthall, Spånga (SE); Myths of the Marble at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo and Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (US); The Eighth Climate (What Does Art Do?) 11th Gwangju Biennial (South Korea) and Surround Audience, New Museum Triennial 2015, New York (US). With Entrée and Independent Hq. in Harlem, New York, she presented the solo exhibition Mattering Waves in 2017. Graff is part of the upcoming exhibition Weather Report –Forecasting Future, at the Nordic Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale (curated by Leevi Haapala and Piia Oksanen).
Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena (b.1971, Montevideo, Uruguay) is currently based between Berlin, Stockholm and Montevideo. He graduated from The Royal College of Art (MFA) in Stockholm (SE) 2002. Juan-Pedro has divided his life between Montevideo, where he was born and partially raised, and Stockholm, where he arrived as a refugee in the late 70's. His work has exhibited internationally, among other in the exhibition Delays and Revolutions at the 50th Venice Biennale (IT), 2003; My Private Heroes Marta Herford Museum (DE) 2006; The Moderna Exhibition, The Modern Museum of Art, Stockholm (SE), 2006; Favored Nations, 5th Momentum Biennial, Moss (NO) 2009; 1st Biennale of The Americas, Denver (US) 2013; The School of Kyiv, Kyiv Biennial (UKR), 2015, and University Of Disaster at the 57th Venice Biennale (IT) 2017.
Toril Johannessen (b.1978, Trondheim, Norway) is an artist currently based in Tromsø, Norway. She is educated from Mountain School of Arts, Los Angeles, California (US) and Bergen National Academy of the Arts (NO). Exhibitions include the solo shows Liquid Properties (with Marjolijn Dijkman), at Munchmuseet on the Move, Munch Museum, Oslo, (NO) and Verbeke Foundation, Kemzeke, (BE); Toril Johannessen, ARoS, Aarhus (DK); Oppfinnelsen og Avviklingen av Øyet, Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen (NO); NORSK NATUR, with Tue Greenfort, Museum of Contemporary Art, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo (NO); Unlearning Optical Illusions, Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Trondheim (NO); AA-MHUMA-AITI-KITTEKITII, OSL Contemporary, Oslo (NO); Variable Stars, Preus Museum, Horten (NO); Teleportation Paradigm, UKS, Oslo (NO). International group shows include the 13th Dak’Art Bienniale de Dakar (SN), the 13th Istanbul Biennial (TR) and Documenta 13 (DE).
Marjolijn Dijkman (b. 1978, Groningen,The Netherlands) lives in Brussels, Belgum and Saint Mihiel, France. She graduated from the Free Media Department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and finished a Post Graduate course at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam. She was also a researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht in 2006 - 2007. Exhibitions include the solo shows Liquid Properties (with Toril Johannessen), at Munchmuseet on the Move, Munch Museum, Oslo, (NO) and Verbeke Foundation, Kemzeke, (BE); That What Makes Us Human, Onomatopee, Eindhove (NL); LUNÄ, fig.-2, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (UK);Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, West Space, Melbourne (AU) and History Rising, Wisbech Museum, Wisbech / Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery & Outpost, Norwich (UK). International group shows include the 21st Biennale of Sydney (AU), 11th Shanghai Bienniale (CN) and 4th Marrakech Biennial (MO). In 2005 she founded Enough Room for Space (ERforS) together with Maarten Vanden Eynde.
Kamilla Langeland (b.1989, Kongsvinger, Norway) currently lives and works between Bergen and Oslo. She holds a BFA from The Academy of Fine Art in Oslo and graduated with an MFA from The Academy of Art and Design in Bergen in 2017. Recent solo exhibitions include The Garden We Share, NoPlace Gallery, Oslo (NO); The Thinker, Flower Pot and Mush (with Sjur Eide Aas) Entrée, Bergen (NO); Cuckoo in The Weed Warblers Nest, MELK Gallery, Oslo (NO) and Layering Structures, LYNX, Oslo (NO). Her work has also been included in the exhibitions The Board Room, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo (NO), The Young Lions, Preus Museum, Horten (NO); Innland, Contemporary Creation Centre Olivier Debré, Tours, (FRA); Dislocating Surfaces: New Scandinavian Photography, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (NO); Fading Forms, Entrée, Bergen (NO) and The National Juried Spring Exhibition, Fotogalleriet, Oslo (NO).
Jenine Marsh (b.1984, Calgary, Canada) is based in Toronto (CA). She holds a BFA from Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary (CA) and graduated with an MFA from the University of Guelph, Ontario (CA) in 2013. Recent solo exhibitions include a room at the center of the world surrounded by the noise of men, Interface Gallery, Oakland (CA); Vivisections, LA DATCHA, Berlin (DE) and always with, Stride Gallery, Calgary CA). Her work has been included in the exhibitions Entangled Tales, Rupert, Vilnius (LT); Orientering, Entrée, Bergen (NO); Occupations of Uninhabited Space, Gianni Manhattan, Vienna (DE); How deep is your love?, Cooper Cole, Toronto (CA); feminine marvelous and tough, Lulu, Mexico City (MX); TRUE LIES, Night Gallery, Los Angeles (US); Dear Stranger (with Lindsay Lawson), Entrée, Bergen (NO); GUTTERSNIPES, Vie d'ange, Montreal (CA); In a world of weeds, all roses are wild, Beautiful, Chicago (US); A Change of Heart, Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles (US) and The cut flower still blooms, 8-11, Toronto (CA).
Randi Grov Berger (b.1982, Stord, Norway) is a freelance curator, and she runs the exhibition space Entrée in Bergen (NO), which she co-founded with artist Cato Løland in 2009. She holds a BFA from The Academy of Art and Design in Bergen and graduated from Art in Public Realm (MFA) from The Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm (SE) and Curatorial Practice from The Academy of Art and Design in Bergen (2012). She coordinated the Norwegian pavilion 'Without Walls' for Performa 13 Biennial, New York (US) and the 'Norwegian Focus' at Printed Matter's New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1 in 2014. She has participated in residencies at Independent Fifth Avenue Gallery Residency Program, Harlem, New York; UKS Curatorial Residency, Kysten Kultursenter, Tromsø; Artist in Residency Berlin (through Bergen Municipality), and The International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York (through Office for Contemporary Art Norway).
Cover image:
