Exhibition views: Bjørn Mortensen
The Land is a sequential exhibition of four artists’ films that disorientate the relationship between landscape, time and experience.
Comprising works by James Benning, Bodil Furu, Michael MacGarry and Amie Siegel, the exhibition unfolds one work after another, just as one encounters the horizon, always unfolding ahead of who or what approaches it. However, at the same time, each film proposes a form of immersion in the land that contradicts the horizontal, speculative position given by the tradition of landscape paintings and photography, genres that are deeply concerned with capturing the horizon. The colonial lineage of this way of seeing-as-apprehending leads to a condition in which looking is confused with ownership, and since the land is not seen to have subjectivity, an unpeopled landscape becomes the medium in which our desires and anxieties can freely propagate.
In interlacing ways these selected works suggest that time and the earth can imbibe persons, and that one can become lost in a circuitous experience of the world in which possession becomes extremely complicated.
Programme:
Every film is screened for five days, from Wednesday to Sunday between 12pm-6pm.
Vernissage Friday 2 February at 7pm. Welcome!
31 January – 4 February:
Amie Siegel, Circuit (2013), 6 minutes.
Loop
7 February – 11 February:
Michael MacGarry, Sea of Ash (2015), 11 minutes.
Loop
14 February – 18 February:
Bodil Furu, Mangeurs de Cuivre (2016), 82 minutes.
Screening times: 12:00 - 13:30 - 15:00 - 16:30
Artist presentation Wednesday 14 February at 7 pm.
21 February – 25 February:
James Benning, Easy Rider (2012), 95 minutes.
Screening times: 12:00 - 13:30 - 15:00 - 16:30
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James Benning (b. 1942, Milwaukee, USA) lives and works in Val Verde, California and has been making films and art since 1970.
Bodil Furu (b.1976, Askim, Norway) lives and works in Oslo and completed her education at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) in 2002. In her films, Bodil Furu works with themes related to landscape, territories and natural resources in Norway, China and DR Congo. Her films has been widely exhibited internationally, including th Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig in 2017; Biennial of Moving Images 2016 in Geneva; The Biennale of Sydney 2014; Lubumbashi Biennale 2013 in Lubumbashi in DR Congo; Documentary Fortnight Expanded 2007 at MoMA in New York; The 10th Istanbul Biennial in 2007; Today Art Museum in Beijing and Momentum in Moss, 2004.
Michael MacGarry (b. 1978, Durban, South Africa) is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He holds an MFA from the University of the Witwatersrand (2004). His work has been exhibited and screened internationally for ten years - including TATE Modern, Guggenheim Bilbao, VideoBrasil, Short Film Festival Oberhausen, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and Rencontres de Bamako. MacGarry's practice is focused on researching narratives and histories of socio-economics, politics and objects within the context of Africa, principally in spaces where contemporary life is in a state of invention and flux.
Amie Siegel (b. 1974, Chicago, USA) works across film, video, photography, performance and installation. The artist is a graduate of Bard College and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Siegel’s recent solo exhibitions include the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; South London Gallery, UK; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum Villa Stuck, Munich; Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and the MAK, Vienna. She has participated in group exhibitions including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Hayward Gallery, London; Kunst-Werke, Berlin; CCA Wattis, San Francisco; MoMA PS1, Queens; MAXXI Museum, Rome; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
Comprising works by James Benning, Bodil Furu, Michael MacGarry and Amie Siegel, the exhibition unfolds one work after another, just as one encounters the horizon, always unfolding ahead of who or what approaches it. However, at the same time, each film proposes a form of immersion in the land that contradicts the horizontal, speculative position given by the tradition of landscape paintings and photography, genres that are deeply concerned with capturing the horizon. The colonial lineage of this way of seeing-as-apprehending leads to a condition in which looking is confused with ownership, and since the land is not seen to have subjectivity, an unpeopled landscape becomes the medium in which our desires and anxieties can freely propagate.
In interlacing ways these selected works suggest that time and the earth can imbibe persons, and that one can become lost in a circuitous experience of the world in which possession becomes extremely complicated.
Programme:
Every film is screened for five days, from Wednesday to Sunday between 12pm-6pm.
Vernissage Friday 2 February at 7pm. Welcome!
31 January – 4 February:
Amie Siegel, Circuit (2013), 6 minutes.
Loop
7 February – 11 February:
Michael MacGarry, Sea of Ash (2015), 11 minutes.
Loop
14 February – 18 February:
Bodil Furu, Mangeurs de Cuivre (2016), 82 minutes.
Screening times: 12:00 - 13:30 - 15:00 - 16:30
Artist presentation Wednesday 14 February at 7 pm.
21 February – 25 February:
James Benning, Easy Rider (2012), 95 minutes.
Screening times: 12:00 - 13:30 - 15:00 - 16:30
--
James Benning (b. 1942, Milwaukee, USA) lives and works in Val Verde, California and has been making films and art since 1970.
Bodil Furu (b.1976, Askim, Norway) lives and works in Oslo and completed her education at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) in 2002. In her films, Bodil Furu works with themes related to landscape, territories and natural resources in Norway, China and DR Congo. Her films has been widely exhibited internationally, including th Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig in 2017; Biennial of Moving Images 2016 in Geneva; The Biennale of Sydney 2014; Lubumbashi Biennale 2013 in Lubumbashi in DR Congo; Documentary Fortnight Expanded 2007 at MoMA in New York; The 10th Istanbul Biennial in 2007; Today Art Museum in Beijing and Momentum in Moss, 2004.
Michael MacGarry (b. 1978, Durban, South Africa) is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He holds an MFA from the University of the Witwatersrand (2004). His work has been exhibited and screened internationally for ten years - including TATE Modern, Guggenheim Bilbao, VideoBrasil, Short Film Festival Oberhausen, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and Rencontres de Bamako. MacGarry's practice is focused on researching narratives and histories of socio-economics, politics and objects within the context of Africa, principally in spaces where contemporary life is in a state of invention and flux.
Amie Siegel (b. 1974, Chicago, USA) works across film, video, photography, performance and installation. The artist is a graduate of Bard College and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Siegel’s recent solo exhibitions include the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; South London Gallery, UK; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum Villa Stuck, Munich; Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and the MAK, Vienna. She has participated in group exhibitions including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Hayward Gallery, London; Kunst-Werke, Berlin; CCA Wattis, San Francisco; MoMA PS1, Queens; MAXXI Museum, Rome; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin