17 Jun 2011

Opening of The 6th MOMENTUM BIENNIAL

Imagine Being Here Now
Opening June 18th

The 6th Momentum Biennial, Imagine Being Here Now, is rooted in a conviction that the complexities of orientating the world depend on factors of memory and imagination and that the process, whatever it may be, inescapably transpires within a set moment and location. Indeed, we usually emphasize the latter when considering human experience, but for each individual time and space expands in unforeseen dimensions, back and forth, up and down. The inherent present of each person does not only involve transitory impressions of the here and now but continuously deals with the past and expectations of the future. Besides existing in time and space, we have the ability to imagine being somewhere else entirely, in any other place at any other time.

Imagine Being Here Now presents works of art by fifty international artists in an exhibition venturing to stretch out, pin down and animate the experience of time in standstill, motion and reverse, and that of place through presence and absence. Within a specific exhibition design that engages the viewer in a distinctly alternative manner of participation and presence, the multitude of perspectives that relate to this attempt are presented in the works of art on display. Consequently, the exhibition retains a multifaceted approach both within the venues in Moss, but also in other Nordic countries through an organized itinerant performance event and, furthermore, in a two-part publication meant to thoroughly consider the matter at hand.

To parse the continual deliberation regarding the experience of presence, what time is and the widely diverse analogies describing it is, of course, truly an endeavor. But it is the sincere aspiration of the curatorial group and the participating artists that the exhibition explores the human experience and its spatial conditions and that it discusses contextual time where imagination is a key feature in producing, sharing and experiencing.

Artists:

Ã?ystein Aasan (NO), Caroline Achaintre (FR), Harpa Ã?rnadóttir (IS), Michael Baers (US), Margrét H. Blöndal (IS), Paolo Bottarelli (IT), KP Brehmer (DE), Elina Brotherus (FI), Heman Chong (SG), Bruce Conner (US), Jason Dodge (US), Aleksandra Domanović  (RS), Leif Elggren (SE), Luca Frei (SE), Ellie Ga (US), Ã?sdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir (IS), Hamza Halloubi (MA), Magnús Logi Kristinsson (IS), Matti Kujasalo (FI), Oliver Laric (AU), Karl Larsson (SE), Ann Lislegaard (NO), The Long Now Foundation (US), Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio (IT), Katarina Löfström (SE), Daniel Medina (VE), Maria Miesenberger (SE), Naeem Mohaiemen (BD), Ulrike Mohr (DE), Eadweard Muybridge (UK), Simon Dybbroe Møller (DK), Rosalind, Nashashibi (UK), Ioana Nemes (RO), Finnbogi Pétursson (IS), Prinz Gholam (DE/LB), Raqs Media Collective (IN), Mandla Reuter (ZA), Nikolai von Rosen (DE), Hans Rosenström (FI), Andreas Siqueland (NO), SEX TAGS (NO), Simon Starling (UK), Fiete Stolte (DE), Superflex in collaboration with The Propeller Group (DK/VN), Ines Tartler (DE), Roi Vaara (FI), Kjell Varvin (NO), Bettina Camilla Vestergaard (DK), Wooloo (DK), George Young (UK)

Curated by:

Markús Þór Andrésson (IS), Christian Skovbjerg Jensen (DK), Theodor Ringborg (SE), Aura Seikkula (FI), Marianne Zamecznik (NO)