Tori Wrånes - Your Next Vacation is Calling

February 10–May 6, 2018 Opening: February 10, 2–5pm

Sørlandets Kunstmuseum is proud to present its latest acquisition, the three-channel video installation Your Next Vacation is Calling (2014-17) by internationally acclaimed Norwegian performance artist Tori Wrånes.

I dream of a mental holiday. A sort of abstract desert of images, movement and sound –Tori Wrånes, November 5, 2014

The walls of a room are covered with thick layers of paint, thrown on with violent, liberating force, as in an abstract painting. A sofa hovering over the floor protrudes from one wall. People visibly merge with the room, moving in rhythmic and repetitive patterns, as if doing physical exercises. The artist herself runs increasingly faster on a treadmill, singing at the same time. In this way she tests how physical exertion affects the expression of the song. The installation appears as a parallel reality in which the participants create a space for new rituals and diversity, where everyone has the freedom to be what they really are. The artist sees it as a ‘mental vacation’, in which the audience has the permission to get involved or not, removed from the rational world outside where everything is evaluated and defined. It is a floating condition, a complex and poetic landscape, without words and logic, but determined by images, colours, rhythms and moods.

The three channel video installation was purchased by Sørlandets Kunstmuseum from Wrånes’s first large solo exhibition in Norway, Hot Pocket (2017), at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, and is a chief work in her oeuvre to date. For Wrånes, performance is an artistic expression that gives a large degree of freedom, and she combines painting, sculpture, installation and song to create a complex and enchanting whole. Her projects are solo performances or involve a large number of people.

Tori Wrånes (b. 1978) is from Kristiansand, and represents a unique voice in Norwegian contemporary art. As one of our most international young artists, she has presented a series of specially-commissioned works all over the world, including Performa 13 in New York (2013) and the Biennale of Sidney (2014). In her art she advocates the right to be different. This is true in her most recent project, Flute Warriors (2017). Here she collaborated with a group of transgender activists in Bogotá, Colombia. They are often subjected to violence and discrimination in their daily lives.

The work is based on a performance commissioned by Lilith Performance Studio, Malmö, Sweden, in 2014. Soundscapes by Simona Barbera.

Tori Wrånes Your Next Vacation is Calling, 2014-17 Three-channel video installation of performance at Lilith Performance Studio, Malmö, Sweden Duration: 16 mins, aspect ratio: 5:2 Edition of 5 (#1/5) (TW29)