Geir Egil Bergjord: Private utsikter

Private utsikter (Private views)
Geir Egil Bergjord
12.9.-17.11.13
Stavanger Kunstmuseum
Photos of famous sights seen through private windows.

Here we meet familiar major sights around the world, but from an unusual angle. All monuments are viewed through privat home windows. Suddenly the viewpoint becomes more interesting than the view. Can we assume that all having a view like this are wealthy? Have they chosen their home because of this view? Have they gotten used to, or even in time started to ignore such a view?

Maybe the view of your own home might be considered spectacular by somebody else? Look out of your own window and enjoy the view, maybe in some way it is as great as any other view?


Exhibition view


Chrysler Building from an office in 3rd Ave, Manhattan, New York


Dome on the Rock from an apartment in Aqbat e-Saray, The Old City, Jerusalem


The Pyramid of Cheops from an apartment in Osman ben Affan, Naziet el Saman, Giza

Sophie Calle: Take Care of Yourself

Take Care of Yourself
Sophie Calle
12.9.13-26.1.14.
Stavanger kunstmuseum
Photos, text, videos interpreting a break-up letter

I knew this exhibition from before, after seeing it at Tallinn Art Hall two years ago. So I was curious on how Stavanger kunstmuseum would present it, and whether it would have any different impact on me, based on both the presentation and the revisiting.




This starts with the artist receiving a letter from her boyfriend, where he ends their relationship, ending the letter with what became the title of the exhibition: "Take care of yourself." In taking care of herself, Sophie Calle sends a copy of the letter to a wide range of female acquaintances, asking them all to interpret the contents of it. The journalist, the phsychoanalyst, the poet and the lawyer all give different versions. All is presented in text or sound, connected with a photo or video of the actual person, together with her name and title.



In this way the heartbraking letter is dissected and analyzed to make it harmless. The wide range of versions show very clearly how differently a text may be perceived. Even two women of the same profession would probably leave different contributions. Some are maybe finding too much meaning and messages in the text, others choose to fold it, shoot it or eat it instead. Probably any text could be treated and interpreted differently like this. All participants are women. This is no coincidence. Will it ever be possible to get full understanding across the gender border?



The exhibition is cleverly installed. The portrait of the woman and her interpretation are visible, and belong together. The name and title is slightly less visible, this leaves it up to you to guess the background first. 





One of the exhibition halls shows Calle's earlier works. Here you get the chance to see her 1980 project from South Bronx where she every day asked one person to show their favourite spot, her 1983 project where she called the people noted in a found address book to describe the book's owner, and her 1984 project of asking Los Angeles citizens about where the angels were. And several books document her works further. Stavanger kunstmuseum offers a great chance to get to know better a very interesting artist.

And I am the arrow

And I am the arrow
Faith47 (ZA), Marit Victoria Wulff Andreassen (NO), Hyuro (ARG), Sandra Chevrier (CAN), Aiko (J/US)
Reedprojects gallery, Stavanger
13.9.13-
Paintings/drawings by five female artists

It is obviously no coincidence that all five artists of this exhibition are female. That is also quite apparent in their works, even if they express it quite differently. They range from artists mainly known for their urban murals to artists mainly known for their gallery works. I am stunned by the beauty of the female faces covered in Marvel comic scenes by Sandra Chevrier, and give a friendly nod to the now familiar iconography by Aiko who just visited Stavanger during the Nuart festival. I become puzzled by the delicate and strongly political drawings by Hyuro - especially the "woman growing hair all over her body, shedding the fur, that becomes a wolf that walks away" triptych. I try to enter the dreamlike world of Faith47, and I am very pleased seeing the wonderful, humorous and slightly disturbing drawings of Marit Victoria Wulff Andreassen.


Sandra Chevrier


Sandra Chevrier: La Cage dans une priere au ciel


Aiko


Hyuro


"Hyuro: Drawing no1 Triptych (detail)


Faith47: The Recurrence of Mood


Marit Victoria Wulff Andreassen


Marit Victoria Wulff Andreassen: Atlantis Våt


Marit Victoria Wulff Andreassen: Tro, håp og kjærlighet

Notes (on de-classing)

Notes (on de-classing)
Ben Cain, Nicolas Deshayes, David Douard, Katja Novitskova, Magali Reus
30.8.-6.10.13
Galleri Opdahl, Stavanger
Mixed media installations

Galleri Opdahl presents five different artists, all showing great playfulness in working with materials in wild combinations. Each artwork has plenty of space to show its own riddle, but also the artwork all seem to belong together somehow.

I am thrilled by the combination of the surprising impact of the works, and the further insight from studying closer. For instance, only from the description in the exhibition note I become aware that inside the chair leg of "Parking (Shade)" there is a car magazine. And by a closer look I notice the installation "Holding Up a Stop" is held up only by friction and the tension between the roof and ceiling. I love such details. It is also tempting to see if that piece will still hold if it is slightly adjusted, as it is tempting to play mikado with the poles of "We are rock (revised)", try to squeeze the squids of "Flints in Gluten", sit down on "Parking (Shade)", or walk through the portal "Untitled".


Ben Cain: Holding Up a Stop


David Douard: SoSick Sunset


Ben Cain: We are rock (revised)


Magali Reus: Parking (Shade)


Nicholas Deshayes: Flints in Gluten



Katja Novitskova: Innate Dosposition + Magali Reus: Noise (Cream Yellow) + Magali Reus: A Line Up (III)


David Douard: Untitled


David Douard: True Vision 2

Nuart 2013 Inside complete overview

The complete overview on:
Nuart 2013 - Invisible Cities
Inside works
MARTHA COOPER (US), DAL EAST (CN), ROA (BE), M-CITY (PL), FAITH47 (ZA), HUSH (UK), VHILS (PT), ERNEST ZACHAREVIC (LT), C215 (FR), DOT DOT DOT (NO), DOTMASTER (UK), STRØK (NO), MARTIN WHATSON (NO), DAVID CHOE (US) AIKO (JP)
7.9.-20.10.13
Tou Scene, Stavanger, Norway
All photos ©kalevkevad

A virtual walk throught the exhibition halls at Tou Scene during the Nuart 2013 exhibition:

DOTDOTDOT



DOTMASTER



DAVID CHOE

















AIKO





MARTHA COOPER - screening of her photo archive



ERNEST ZACHAREVIC







M-CITY



STRØK



VHILS



MARTIN WHATSON





HUSH



DALEAST & FAITH47



C215



UNKNOWN