Press release -
NORSK NATUR. Toril Johannessen and Tue Greenfort
What does nature mean to you? In the exhibition“NORSK NATUR”, the Norwegian artist Toril Johannessen and the Danish artist Tue Greenfort join forces to discuss nature.
Exhibition: “NORSK NATUR. Toril Johannessen and Tue Greenfort”
Place: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Bankplassen 4, Oslo
Period: 17 September–15 January 2017
The exhibition “NORSK NATUR” (“Norwegian nature”) presents Toril Johannessen’s (b. 1978) and Tue Greenfort’s (b. 1973) artistic reflections on the natural landscape and ecosystems and how these relate to the economy and to state institutions. The title initially seems to refer to a traditional conception of Norwegian nature as wild, beautiful and pristine, but the exhibition challenges and expands upon this notion. The focus of the exhibition is thus not on Norwegian nature as traditionally conceived, but on nature in all its institutionalised, aestheticised, capitalised and systematised forms.
The artists have envisioned the exhibition as an ecosystem with artworks as individuals. It starts with the Norwegian title “norsk natur”, which is transformed into a logo that features on a banner on the museum façade. Prior to the exhibition’s physical manifestation, the project began with the artists hiking to the cabin of philosopher Arne Næss on Hallingskarvet.
Toril Johannessen and Danish artist Tue Greenfort have engaged in an intense conversation to present a combination of existing works and new works developed specially for the exhibition, some collaboratively, some individually. Although they have not worked together before, they have followed each other’s work since their participation in dOCUMENTA (13) in 2012, where they recognized their shared interest in particular areas of research and a similar mode of artistic practice.
“NORSK NATUR” is the second exhibition in our series in which younger Norwegian artists exhibit in dialogue with international colleagues. Launched in 2014 with Norwegian Sofie Berntsen and Swede Karl Holmqvist, this series is a continuation and further development of our earlier series of solo shows that featured key Norwegian contemporaries, including Ida Ekblad, Camilla Løw, Snorre Ytterstad, Marte Aas and Matias Faldbakken.
| About Toril Johannessen (b. 1978 in Norway) Toril Johannessen lives and works in Bergen. She often uses scientific materials and methods in her art to order to explore a wide range of themes, from impossible energy cycles to alternative methods for measuring time, optical illusions, spatial disorientation and linguistic misunderstandings. By combining research findings and the history of science with her own studies and concepts, Johannessen takes a critical but playful look at how modern science influences our understanding of the world. |
| About Tue Greenfort (b. 1973 in Denmark) Tue Greenfort lives and works in Berlin, where he explores themes that relate to the public and the private, to nature and culture. With an interest in the dynamics of the natural world, his art often deals with ecological history, our surroundings, social relations and the human subject. Taking such themes as his starting point, Greenfort often explicitly criticizes economic and scientific production, with an artistic style based on ecology. |
Contact information:
Eva Amine Wold Engeset, press officer: +47 469 50 102,eva.engeset@nasjonalmuseet.no
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