Ane Hjort Guttu
eating or opening a window or just walking dully along
28 May–16 August 2015
Opening: 28 May, 1pm
Bergen Kunsthall
Rasmus Meyers allé 5
5015 Bergen
Norway
T +47 55 55 93 10
bergen [at] kunsthall.no
Curated by Martin Clark and Steinar Sekkingstad
eating or opening a window or just walking dully along is a major solo exhibition by Ane Hjort Guttu, presenting a series of new works, including the premiere of her new film Time Passes (2015). Accompanying the exhibition is a new book co-published by Bergen Kunsthall and Sternberg Press.
Ane Hjort Guttu is the 2015 Bergen International Festival artist. This exhibition will present a new body of work, commissioned by Bergen Kunsthall, which investigates issues of power, freedom, the role and responsibility of the artist, and the possibilities and limitations of so called “political art.”
The centerpiece of the exhibition is a major new film, shot on location in Bergen, about a young art student who assumes the role of a beggar on the streets of the city. This action begins as a performative artwork, but soon develops into an existential crisis for the student, who struggles to justify to herself how she can continue to make art in the face of the social inequality and injustice that she encounters each day outside the privileged and controlled environment of the art school. Eventually the question of whether or not this action is “art” becomes meaningless for her, and the “project” is absorbed into her everyday life.
Time Passes takes up a challenging position amidst the current debate on the prohibition of begging in Norway and the authorities’ treatment of the Romanian Roma. At the same time it gathers together a number of themes to which Guttu constantly returns in her works: the use of and access to public space; the scope of action for art and artists in the face of a politically sensitive situation; how we can or should position ourselves in relation to poverty and inequality; or whether effective political action is best achieved outside of the frame of art?
These themes are further explored through a number of other works in the exhibition, which investigate the way in which the visual space of the city is changing. The privatization and commercialization of public space is another current issue in Bergen, where the municipality has recently opened up for a significant increase in urban advertising. Set against the debate around begging, it highlights a contradictory and complex debate around the use of and rights to public space, and the way these different activities and demands also infringe on our personal space and psyche.
Ane Hjort Guttu (b. 1971) lives and works in Oslo. Time Passes is commissioned by Bergen Kunsthall and co-commissioned by South London Gallery. The work will be included in a solo exhibition opening 25 June at South London Gallery.
Supported by: Vestnorsk Filmsenter, Fond for lyd og bilde, Arts Council Norway, Lorck Schive kunstpris, The Fritt Ord Foundation, Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond, Statens Utstillingsstipend, Norwegian Photographic Fund, The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Culture, The City of Bergen, Hordaland County, Norwegian Hull Club, Sparebanken Vest, The Norwegian Association of Art Societies, Familien Brynildsens legat, H. Westfal-Larsen og hustru Anna Westfal-Larsens Almennyttige fond, Jo Tankers, Stadsporten and Grieg Foundation.
Publication:
Ane Hjort Guttu
eating or opening a window or just walking dully along
Essays byEkaterina Degot, Ane Hjort Guttu, Halvor Haugen, Pablo Lafuente, Kim West, Martin Clark and Steinar Sekkingstad. Published by Bergen Kunsthall and Sternberg Press, May 2015.
Also opening in Bergen Kunsthall’s NO.5 space:
Gestures of Disappearance
NO.5
Bas Jan Ader, Chris Burden, Arthur Cravan, Lee Lozano
28 May–16 August 2015
Curated by Alexander Koch
Gestures of Disappearance was first shown in 2002 at the Gallery of the Art Academy in Leipzig, Germany. The exhibition brought together, for the first time, four seminal artists, each of whom disappeared from the art world in different ways and for different reasons.
The exhibition gives a comprehensive overview of the life and work of the little known but influential pre-Dadaist poet, critic and rabble-rouser, Arthur Cravan, as well as post-war American-based artists Bas Jan Ader, Chris Burden and Lee Lozano. As the title Gestures of Disappearance suggests, the exhibition focuses on the ostentatious, performative and, for some, inescapable aspects of artistic withdrawal.
In NO.5 Bergen Kunsthall revisits selected artworks and exhibitions, previously presented elsewhere in the world. Initiated in response to the increasing acceleration of both the production and reception of art, NO.5 provides an opportunity to slow down, focus on, and look again at particular works, exhibitions or fragments of exhibitions.
Publication: Gestures of Disappearance will be accompanied by a publication including a new essay by Joshua Decter.
Related events:
30 May, 1pm
Platform: Ane Hjort Guttu in conversation with Kim West.
The actors from Time Passes in conversation with Halvor Haugen.
9 September, 7pm
Platform: Seminar with Ane Hjort Guttu, Ekaterina Degot and others (tba). Check our webpage for updates. The seminar is part of a series of public talks extending the duration of the exhibition itself. The first part, “Political Work,” was held in November 2014, and is available in our online archive.
Platform is Bergen Kunsthall’s series of lectures, presentations and debates.
Guided tours every Sunday at 2pm
