HISTORIC INYTERVENTIONS IN BREIDABLIKK, STAVANGER, NORWAY, 2014
Video and installation
The project was a part of Museum Stavanger´s celebration of the Norwegian Constitution's bicentenary. Eight artists were chosen to produce individual artistic projects that thematically dealt with the idea of the museum as a preserver of collective memory. The general title of the project was “Who Owns History – Power, Art and Democracy”.
My contribution was a complex installation in Villa Breidablikk, a bourgeois villa built in 1881 that now belongs to the collection of the Museum's Cultural History Department. The pieces I produced were incorporated into the different public and private rooms of the villa, presenting the visitors with a complete experience of exploration throughout the house.
All in all, I produced six different video pieces, and various installations consisting of found objects and objects belonging to the cultural history collection of the Museum.
My point of departure, and the main theme of my project, was to draw comparisons between the bourgeoisie of late 19th century Stavanger and the nouveau riche attitude of the present-day city. Since Norway started exploitation of its North Sea oil and gas reserves in the the late 1960s, Stavanger has been profiting immensely from this industry.
Most of my pieces were produced on site in the Villa. They involved models that took on different fictional roles and acted in staged tableaux encompassing melancholic and humorous elements, and expressing emotions that reflect the ambivalence I feel towards the city, the house and its history.
