We Are Living On A Star

Organized by Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (HOK) in collaboration with Fritt Ord (The Freedom of Speech Foundation).

The exhibition takes its title from a tapestry woven in 1958 by Hannah Ryggen, which hung in the Norwegian government building known as “the High-rise” until July 22, 2011. The extensive explosion that took place that day left the tapestry with a gash in the left lower corner. Like a wound that has healed, this tear is now barely visible after meticulous reconstruction, although a slight scar remains––a testament to the brutal tear in the fabric of Norwegian society.

In a short span of time the events of July 22 transformed the experience of normality as it was known and, consequently, the predictable. The normal was no longer familiar, and the abnormal was no longer associated only with the foreign. The artists participating in We Are Living on a Star contend with a range of issues relating to history, contemporaneity, normality, and freedom of expression. The result is an open and inquiring look at our own time.

Participating artists: Burak Arıkan, Doug Ashford, Julian Blaue, Martin Braathen, Marius Engh, Marthe Ramm Fortun, Hanne Friis, Else Marie Hagen, Silje Linge Haaland, Per-Oskar Leu, Lotte Konow Lund, Jumana Manna, Eline McGeorge, Eva Rothschild, Hannah Ryggen, Ahlam Shibli, Superunion Architects, Javier Téllez, and Even Smith Wergeland.

A seminar on “normality” on March 28, and a publication entitled We Are Living on a Star, co-published with Sternberg Press, follows the exhibition.

Curators: Tone Hansen and Marit Paasche.

We Are Living On A Star

artists:
Burak Arıkan, Doug Ashford, Julian Blaue, Martin Braathen, Marius Engh, Marthe Ramm Fortun, Hanne Friis, Else Marie Hagen, Silje Linge Haaland, Per-Oskar Leu, Lotte Konow Lund, Jumana Manna, Eline McGeorge, Eva Rothschild, Hannah Ryggen, Ahlam Shibli, Superunion Architects , Javier Téllez, Even Smith Wergeland.

curators:
Tone Hansen, Marit Paasche