joint exhibition “innland”
curators : Thora Dolven Balke, Élodie Stroecken
avec Ahmad Ghossein, Tiril Hasselknippe, Saman Kamyab, Ignas Krunglevičius, Kamilla Langeland, Lars Laumann, Solveig Lønseth, Ann Cathrin November Hoibø, Linn Pedersen, Tori Wrånes and Thora Dolven Balke.
Faithful to its prospective mission, the CCC OD entered into encounters with artists active on the Norwegian art scene since the 2000s. The exhibition «Innland» showcases eleven artists from roughly the same generation, all with a relationship to Norway, whether they are born there, live there or have studied and spent time there. Rather than looking at a group of artist through the perspective of nationality, it shows how these artists have been in uenced by the unique conditions of their own time, by their shared circumstances for thinking and producing and how this manifests itself in their work and their perspective of the future. For the rst time, the Black Gallery turns into a platform of production and experimentations, laid out in a dense scenography.
«Innland» is a Norwegian term indicating the interior of a territory. As a title it questions the meaning of ‘interior’ of any de ned space. Geographically Innland is far from the territorial boundaries, and as such, historically, further removed from outside in uence that arrives across borders. It can evoke a variety of characteristics depending on where you come from. In Norway, for example, the interior landscape is dense with forests, mountains and lakes, di erent from the openness of the coast that makes up almost the entire country. “Innland” could also refer to another kind of intimate topography that signi es a personal interior; the self – a place worth protecting and inaccessible to others. Using this word today also inevitably summons a political de nition of interior, a countries domestic territory, in a moment where di erent powers are pushing to close or open borders across Europe and elsewhere. The works shown here each raise various questions concerning these geographical, political or personal interpretations of innland – whilst together forming an ephemeral shared landscape, accessible for the duration of the exhibition.
The diversity of this art scene has modelled our proposition. We are witnessing a profound reassessment of the mediums themselves and of their limits. These artists are questioning the de nition of images as well as their use; the way they are generated and how their interpretation could move our understanding of the world. A generation who grew up saturated with images of all kinds adopts a posture of detachment that creates a deceleration, allowing time and concern to contemplate meaning. This process of slowing down and concentrating allows a play of constant exchanges between the surface of objects and their materiality and depth. Something these artists share is a critical point of view on their own realities, even as the works take a variety of forms. Here, they give relevant propositions in search for meaning in our shared world.