Selected works from the exhibition «House of Norway» (October 11, 2019–January 26, 2020), which took place at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt am Main on the occasion of Norway’s guest country appearance at the Frankfurter Buchmesse, are being presented in a new constellation under the title «The White, the Green, and the Dark». The 19 works by a total of ten artists are being shown at from June 2–October 3, 2020.
Southern and western areas of Norway, with their coastal areas, lake landscapes, and forests, are very different from the snowy tundra of the Finnmark in the northern regions or the arctic area in the northeast. The realities of life are correspondingly different for the people who inhabit in each place. Life in Oslo and a handful of other large cities is different from life in rural areas. The existence of an Indigenous ethnic group, whose cultural area Sápmi extends across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and parts of Russia, provides different themes for artists than the landscapes in Telemark, which are dominated by deep valleys and dark forests.
The film and sound installations, as well as sculptures, textiles, and objects shown in «The White, the Green, and the Dark» offer visitors insights into the reflections on these different experiences. Many of the works focus on the artist’s personal sense of identity and homeland, a reflection on these issues, or climatic and social changes. A further emphasis of the contemporary works on display are contributions by artists who belong to the Indigenous ethnic group of the Sámi. These works tend examine individual and collective experiences in relation to tradition, belief, discrimination, and foreign influence verses self-determination.
Photo credit: Photo Marie Louise Somby/En terre Indigene