INTO THE RABBIT HOLE, NORDIC PAVILION OF DAK'ART BIENNIAL 2012, DAKAR, SENEGAL
Nordic Pavilion, Dak'Art, Dakar Senegal 2012
May 12th – May 27th
Opening reception May 12th 5 pm – 10 pm
Performance by Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen and Hans Berg & Nathalie Djurberg 8 pm
Participating artists: Curators:
Hans Berg & Nathalie Djurberg (Sweden) Power Ekroth (Sweden/Norway)
Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen (Norway) Marita Muukkonen (Finland)
Jesper Just (Denmark)
Matti Kallioinen (Sweden)
Otto Karvonen (Finland)
Teemu Mäki (Finland)
Egill Sæbjönsson (Iceland)
The first official Nordic Pavilion in the oldest African Art Biennial DakarエArt is titled INTO THE RABBIT HOLE, a title that at first refers to the well known fairy tale Alice in Wonderland. Alice falls down a rabbit hole and discover a parallell world where she finds a lot of things very different from what she is used to. Going back to the 馬ormalworld makes her see normality in a different light. The playful title suggest that art may be exactly such a rabbit hole. The exhibition will take place in the Gallery Espace VEMA in Dakar and is a part of the official programme of the biennial.
”Only imagination can show us what to be,said the poet AndrBreton. Part of the artists in the exhibition, such as Egill Sæbjönsson, Matti Kallionen and Hans Berg & Nathalie Djurberg are producing parallel universes, parallel cultures, which lead thoughts to both fairy tales and to surrealism, to dreams giving an intellectual and visual stimulation, kicking us through another world and then putting us back into the "real" world with a different perspective afterwards. Part of the artists are shaking realities more directly by creating alternative cultures driven by dreams, such as Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen and Otto Karvonen, by expanding, questioning and re-creating boundaries between economy, corporate ideas, utopia, society and art. There lies a strength and beauty of parallel universes and cultures; they can make us to see, feel, think, act, hear, smell, taste, and love differently. There is also the potential to change existing realities by making subtle changes or additions, like Teemu Mäki, or like Jesper Just, showing a world where some small changes that makes a large difference already exists.
The exhibition is preceded by a residency period for several of the Nordic artists with collaboration with Raw Material Company, Dakar and the Senegalese artists and curator Diba Viyand the National School of Arts, Dakar.
The exhibition is supported by KK Nord, IASPIS, FRAME, OCA and Finnish Art Council.
For further information and press photos contact:
Power Ekroth: power.ekroth@gmail.com, tel. +46707398888
Marita Muukkonen: maritamuukkonen@gmail.com, tel. +358440965103
Artists' and curators' biographies:
Hans Berg (19XX) & Nathalie Djurberg (1978, SV)
Nathalie Djurberg most often work with short stop-motion animation films with figures made by plasticine clay with soundtracks by musician Hans Berg. The story boards of the films sometimes cross over to the burlesque and even surreal, but portray some of the darkest fears or sinful desires of our human mind – but always with a great sense of humour. Djurberg has been included in many prestigious exhibitions including the Venice Biennial (2009).
Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen (1979, NO)
Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen may be best known for the project H虧kiTM that made the cover of Contemporary Magazine in 2006, where the boundaries between economy, corporate ideas, utopia, society and art are expanded and explored. His works reflects his interests in consumer habits, behavioural economics and marketing strategies in the most ingenious ways – always in striking packages. Hansen will produce works in Senegal for the exhibition. www.kowalskiness.com & www.haakki.com
Jesper Just (1974, DK)
Jesper Just's short films deliberately plays with the spectator's expectations in surprising plots for the narratives. Accompanying the charachters' sometimes surreal actions are special made sound tracks that also plays important roles to the overall impressions of the films that seems to be aesthetically inspired by Film Noir. The relationships that occurs in the films pushes the limits of what society accepts as normal behaviour and hence makes us rethink what normal and abnormal can be or become. www.jesperjust.com
Matti Kallioinen (1974, SE)
Matti Kallioinen's performances, films and installations has an aesthetic of its own, borrowing from children's fairy tales, psychedelia, science fiction and research about artificial intelligence, creating a world of his own. Dark and dreamlike, yet childish in its playfulness, Kallioinen's art is not for the squeamish as his reality seems to stem from the back side of the moon, yet it is played out with ease and a light touch of something familiar to navit www.mattikallioinen.com
Otto Karvonen (1975, FI)
Otto Karvonen is specialized in temporary installations, interventions and sculptures in public spaces. His works can be described as situation-specific: they are developed in close interaction with their surroundings, taking into account their spatial and temporal dimensions. Karvonen has gained a reputation for modest, humorous and ironic interventions that mix and confuse our perception of everyday reality. His works often comment on urgent political, economic, social and religious topics, carefully avoiding obvious or forced statements.
Teemu Mäki (1968, FI)
Teemu Mäki works in the fields of art, philosophy and politics by whatever means necessary. The results are usually some kind of visual art, theater, literature or theory. For him art is the most flexible, versatile and comprehensive form of philosophy and politics. Mäki is an artist, Doctor of Fine Arts and Professor in Aalto University.
www.teemumaki.com
Egill Sæbjönsson (1973, ICE)
Egill Sæbjönsson works with video, installation and sound/music in an intricate manner. As he is a musician as much as a visual artist, music always plays a vital role in his works. Finding ways to incorporate himself in performative actions with his videos functioning as back-drops, he may sing a song, play a tune or incorporate every day objects that in combination with the films 把ompletesthe work in what can be experienced as a sort of theatre with an uncommon narrative structure.
http://www.eaglestuff.net/
Curators
Power Ekroth (1971, SV/NO) is an independent curator, critic and editor. She is a contributor for international magazines such as Artforum.com, Contemporary, Flash Art and Frieze, and she is one of the founding editors of the magazine SITE (www.sitemagazine.net). Recent projects include the residency and exhibition FAMES Family Vaudeville (2010/2011) at DARB 1718, Cairo, Egypt (co-curated by Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena) and Nordic Art Today: Conceptual Debts, Broken Dreams and New Horizons at Etagi, St Petersburg 2011 (co-curated by Kari Brandz詒, Birta Gudjunsson, Simon Sheikh, Anna Bitkina and Aura Seikkula). She will be one of the curators of the Turku Biennial 2013, and she will curate the 7th international Momentum Biennial in Moss, Norway 2013 (together with Erlend Hammer).
Marita Muukkonen (1971, FI) currently works as a curator for HIAP, Helsinki International Artists-in-Residence Programme. Among the international-profile events she curates at HIAP, HIAP TALKS have drawn a distinguished line-up from around the world. Together with the French-US curator Ivor Stodolsky, Marita Muukkonen runs the curatorial vehicle Perpetuum Mobile, which they describe as a "conduit and engine to bring together art, practice and inquiry.Projects, among others, have included the Perpetual Pavilion (Venice 2009) and The Arts Assembly (Manifesta 8). In previous years, Marita worked for several contemporary art institutions such as FRAME, the journal FRAMEWORK and NIFCA - The Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art.