Fotografi, 180x800 cm.
Har du noen gang hoppet ned i snoen med bena først, for å se hvor langt ned du kom?
Måling av Snødybde ble til vinteren 1982 på Røros. I serien på åtte fotografi forsvinner kroppen til Oddvar I.N. Daren ned i underlaget, som om han går ned en usynlig trapp. Han markerer dybden på hvert trinn gjennom å stable en tilsvarende kube med snø på toppen av snøoverflaten. Med en litt humoristisk og absurd handling bruker Daren sin egen kropp som målestokk.

Lakkert aluminium, 215x215x215 cm.
Oddvar Darens installasjon 10 m3 Trekrone (2020) tar for seg selve handlingen å måle. Ved å velge noe å måle, og samtidig tilby en metode for avgrensning, reflekterer verket over menneskets skala i forhold til naturen, og hvordan vi selv oppfatter dette. Verket stammer fra Hemmelige hendelser, en serie installasjoner ute i naturen, bestående av kuber som markerte volumet av stein og busker. Spor etter handlinger i vill natur, uten noen indikasjon på hvorfor de var blitt avmerket. En tilfeldig kvantifisering av naturen, etterlatt som en form for anerkjennelse.

10 m3 Trekrone (2020) kan sees mellom museet og Nidarosdomen. 

Measuring the Depth of Snow, 1982
Photography, 180x800 cm.

Have you ever jumped into the snow, feet first, just to see how deep you’ll go?
Measuring the Depth of Snow was made in Røros, the winter of 1982. In the series of eight photographs Daren’s body disappears in the ground, as if he was walking down a flight of invisible stairs. He marks the depth of every step by stacking an equivalent cube of snow on top of the snow surface. With an act of absurdity and humor, Daren uses his own body as an instrument of measuring.

10 m3 of Tree Crown, 2020
Varnished aluminium, 215x215x215 cm.

Oddvar Daren’s 10 m3 of Tree Crown (2020) goes through the motions of measuring in a straightforward fashion. It reflects on the scale of man in relation to nature, and how we perceive this, by selecting a sample to measure and a method of framing it. The work stem from a series of actions carried out in nature called Hemmelige hendelser (Secret Events). Cubes marking a volume of stone or shrubs and traces of other operations were left in wild nature, with no indication why they had been marked out. A blind act of quantifying left behind as an act of acknowledgement.

Ragnar Kjartansson (b. 1976) lives and works in Reykjavík. Kjartansson engages multiple artistic mediums, creating video installations, performances, drawings, and paintings that draw upon a myriad historical and cultural references. An underlying pathos and irony connect his works, with each deeply influenced by the comedy and tragedy of classical theater. The artist blurs the distinctions between mediums, approaching his painting practice as performance, likening his films to paintings, and his performances to sculpture. Throughout, Kjartansson conveys an interest in beauty and its banality, and he uses durational, repetitive performance as a form of exploration.

Major solo shows include exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Reykjavík Art Museum; the Barbican Centre, London; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Park, Washington D.C.; the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal; the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich; the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; among others. Kjartansson participated in The Encyclopedic Palace at the Venice Biennale in 2013, Manifesta 10 in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2014, and he represented Iceland at the 2009 Venice Biennale. The artist received the 2019 Ars Fennica Award, and was the recipient of the 2015 Artes Mundi’s Derek Williams Trust Purchase Award, and Performa’s 2011 Malcolm McLaren Award.