On Lies, Secrets and Silence
Exhibition and catalogue
Commissioned by Bonniers Konsthall and Astrup Fearnley Museet.
Bonniers Konsthall
August 28–November 10, 2024
Astrup Fearnley Museet
February 7–April 27, 2025
On Lies, Secrets and Silence takes its starting point in our most private and intimate space—the home. Through newly produced works in the form of collage, video and sculpture, staged as spatial installations, the exhibition focuses on the complex relationships that are contained within the domestic sphere, central to our everyday lives and in the creation of our identity. Familiar environments and relationships may suddenly, through subtle changes, transform from safe to strange and uncomfortable.
In recent years, Frida Orupabo (b. 1986, based in Oslo, Norway) has been recognized internationally as one of the most important artists of our time. In her image-based practice, she works with digital and physical collages, exploring issues of identity, gender, family relations and racism. Her work draws from personal experiences that are deeply intertwined with shared, collective experiences. Using a distinct collage technique, Orupabo’s artistic process is rooted in a photomontage tradition where she manipulates, cuts, arranges, inverts and loops images. Powerful as they are, these interventions create imaginative and poignant reworkings of motifs that seek to challenge colonial notions still embedded in many social, economic and political structures.
Frida Orupabo, On Lies, Secrets and Silence
The catalogue is published by Bonniers Konsthall and Astrup Fearnley Museet in collaboration with Skira Editore, and co-financed by Stiftung Niedersachsen.
The richly illustrated catalogue Frida Orupabo: On Lies, Secrets and Silence offers critical and creative texts in response to the exhibition. The catalogue begins with a foreword by Joanna Nordin (Artistic Director at Bonniers Konsthall) and Solveig Øvstebø (Executive Director and Chief Curator at Astrup Faernley Museet), followed by an introduction by Yuvinka Medina (Senior Curator at Bonniers Konsthall) and Owen Martin (Curator at Astrup Fearnley Museet), who highlight the significance of the artist’s early digital work and its relation to On Lies, Secrets and Silence. The catalogue also features original essays by Nina Cramer (PhD candidate at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies) and Mai Takawira (independent curator and researcher), who explore the position of Orupabo’s work within a Nordic context, as well as by Dr. Portia Malatjie (curator and lecturer in Visual Cultures at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town), who considers the connections between race, discomfort and play. Additionally, C. LeClaire (poet and author) and Hilton Als (award-winning journalist, critic and curator) contribute creative, deeply personal texts that open up for singular readings of the exhibition. It will also be published in a German edition in collaboration with Sprengel Museum Hannover and Stiftung Niedersachsen, coinciding with Frida Orupabo receiving the prestigious Spectrum International Prize for Photography in 2025.
Curators and editors: Yuvinka Medina, Owen Martin
Project manager and proofreader: Bettina Schultz
Texts: Yuvinka Medina and Owen Martin; Nina Cramer and Mai Takawira; Dr. Portia Malatjie; C. LeClaire and Hilton Als
Language: English
Book design: Gabrielle Guy
2024, 156 pages
ISBN: 978-88-572-5310-7
Book launch and conversation
Saturday October 26, 2pm
Bonniers Konsthall, Torsgatan 19
Join in a deep-dive conversation with the curatorial duo G/HOSTING, Mai Takawira and Nina Cramer, who are both contributing writers in the catalogue. The conversation will be moderated by Marie-Louise Richards—Lecturer in Architecture/Area of Architecture and Critical Studies at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Welcome!
For more information about the exhibition please contact:
Astrup Fearnley Museet, Head of Communication Stein-Inge Århus, s.aarhus [at] afmuseet.no
Bonniers Konsthall, Head of Communication Kajsa Pontén, kajsa.ponten [at] bonnierskonsthall.se
For more information about the catalogue please contact:
Skira Editore, web [at] skira-arte.com
