Press
HOUSE OF NORWAY
11 October 2019 – 26 January 2020
Opening: Thu, 10 October 2019, 7.30 pm
With HOUSE OF NORWAY the Museum Angewandte Kunst devotes its entire exhibition space to Norway, the Frankfurt Book Fair’s guest of honour 2019.
With HOUSE OF NORWAY the Museum Angewandte Kunst devotes its entire exhibition space to Norway, the Frankfurt Book Fair’s guest of honour 2019. The exhibition HOUSE OF NORWAY brings together and mixes works of art, design, craftsmanship and architecture in order to create special constellations that surprise and propose a new way of seeing.
It can be read like a journey of a special kind: with first-time and recurring encounters, moments of astonishment and contemplation. With new discoveries where what has already been seen seems familiar. A journey through a country characterised by different landscapes, climates and population densities: the South and West of Norway, with its coastal areas, lakes and forests, is distinctly different from the snow tundra of the Finnmark in the North or the Arctic climes in the Northeast; life in Oslo and the other few large cities is different from that in the rural areas. Accordingly, it is not only the realities of people’s lives in the respective places that differ, but also the inspirations for their artistic and creative work. And so the existence of an Indigenous ethnic group whose cultural area, Sápmi, stretches across Norway, Sweden, Finland and parts of Russia, offers artists and designers other themes than the landscapes in the Telemark, which are determined by deep valley incisions and dark forests – which in turn lead to other forms of expression and meanings attributed to the works.
The open thematic presentation unites works by contemporary artists such as Frank Ekeberg, Kari Steihaug, and Ingrid Torvund with drawings and accompanying lyrical prose texts by the world-famous artist Edvard Munch on loan from the Munchmuseet in Oslo. A guest performance by the Sámi National Theatre Beaivváš (SNTB) provides an insight into the art and culture of the Indigenous Sámi people. In addition, works by the Sámi artists Per Heimly, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Joar Nango, Synnøve Persen, Máret Ánne Sara, and and Hans Ragnar Mathisen as well as those by artisans such as Sune Enoksson and Jørn Are Keskitalo, will be presented.
Visitors will also encounter important designers, among them Regine Juhls, Torbjørn Kvasbø, Peter Opsvik, Grete Prytz Kittelsen and Tone Vigeland. Examples of modern architecture, like that of Sverre Fehn or Joar Nango, and the area of social design as well as latest trends in fashion and new Nordic cuisine represent the creative exploration of a world in transition.
In addition to 47 artistic and creative positions, the exhibition presents short films from Norway. With their themes, the selection of films, curated by Sabine Schirdewahn, make imaginable the individual reflections of the artists and designers in their relationship to the objective social, ecological and economic conditions that might have accompanied the creation of their works.
